The Realignment Of Haruhi Suzumiya
by Rylak - The Mad Cinder
Summary: After a chance meeting with the former computer club president, Haruhi goes on an adventure to get her Brigade back together. In twelve years, the others are sure to have changed... but how much? Will they still be her friends? Rated T for skeletons in and out of closets. Please read and review.
1. Prologue

Today should have been like any other day.

The clouds were a bit darker, and it looked like it might rain, but it should have been no different. I had three calls today, so I went to the addresses they gave me and fixed whatever it was that broke down. That's pretty much my job.

The first place was a computer with a virus. It wasn't a particularly nasty or complex program, only designed to slow the computer down, so dealing with it was simple. The second place was just a faulty circuit that kept shorting out light bulbs. Easy, as far as my line of work goes.

The last place was a different deal altogether. It was in the back of a small diner, in the owner's living space. His personal computer had dried champagne all through the circuits. I'm surprised the thing was still salvageable, although that would likely not be the case if it had been a decade or two newer. It's true, they really don't make them like they used to.

Because my last job of the day was in the back of a diner, I decided to stick around a bit longer and get something to eat. When I finished my burger, which I must say tasted rather poor, I turned around in my seat at the counter and glanced around the diner. My first assumption should have been my last. I shouldn't have looked again.

But, of course, I did. Why? Because I saw something I thought was a bit familiar. There, at the back of the diner, was a young woman I was certain I had seen before. Her brown hair reached just past her shoulders and had a yellow ribbon that kept it out of her face, revealing her amber eyes. A few moments passed before I matched a name to the face.

She probably doesn't even remember me, seeing as we haven't met since high school. That was about twelve years ago, and considering that we were never really on good terms, I would have completely forgotten her too if she hadn't been so unforgettable. She had always been energetic, that much a remembered for sure, which is why it was disturbing to see her like this.

She was slumped over the table, her head buried in her arms. It almost looked like she was crying, but she was definitely exhausted. Something else seemed wrong, and that's when I found myself looking around for the rest of her brigade. I chided myself, remembering again that twelve years is in fact a very long time. I realized fairly quickly that that was what was bothering her. She was alone. Her friends were all gone. It also occurred to me that the diner wasn't too far from the high school we all went to. Her brigade probably came here often. It must have been a place full of memories for her.

That all said, I'm not sure why I stood up and walked over to her table. Again, we were never really friends. The closest we'd ever been was when she kicked me in the face. That happened at least once. Come to think of it, I was probably putting myself at risk just by approaching her. Why I went ahead and said her name is beyond me.

"Haruhi Suzumiya?"

After a few moments, she slowly raised her head up to look at me. There was no recognition in her eyes, so I figured I might be safe. Now that I could see her face, I confirmed that she had indeed been crying. The look she gave me was one of complete loneliness. It would have broken my heart if it weren't for the memories of her almost breaking my face.

Apparently, once she determined she didn't know me, she buried her face in her arms again. I was about to leave when she finally spoke. "How do you know my name?"

I laughed, trying not to sound like I was enjoying her situation, but laughing all the same. "You're not an easy person to forget. Sure, twelve years wears on the memory, but you... you're one person I'll probably never forget."

She didn't even look back up at me to deliver a cutting retort. "You, on the other hand, must have been really forgettable. I haven't the slightest clue who you are."

Ouch. Still, even if she ever did know my name, I know she never said it when I was around. I was just a rival or enemy or possible resource to her. In the end, it might be best not to jog her memory. Just thinking about that kick makes my face hurt. I guess some of the truth can't hurt though.

"We, uh, we went to high school together. We never really hung out or anything, but we weren't exactly unfamiliar with each other."

She looked up at me again, trying to remember my face. I've changed a lot more in the past twelve years than she has, so good luck to her. She rested her chin on her arms, still studying me. "So, just vaguely aware of each other's existence?"

A little more than that, I would say. My face agrees. "Yeah, pretty much."

She sighed, obviously bored. Lonely and bored. "I... I don't suppose you know where the rest of my, er, my friends are, do you? After high school, we pretty much scattered. I wanted to keep in touch, but everyone just moved away. You're the first person who's recognized me, other than my parents, in the last decade."

Okay... to be honest, I guess it's the same for me. I only have the contact information for one person I knew in high school. She moved to Canada, so... yeah. Actually... I may be able to help Haruhi. "Come to think of it, I do know where one person went. She wasn't a member of your brigade, but she might be a good person to start with."

Miss Suzumiya looked up at me hopefully. "Who? Where?"

Here we go. "You may remember Miss Emiri Kimidori. I happen to still have her phone number and e-mail."

Her eyes went wide. "Kimidori? She used to live in the same building as Yuki! They probably keep in touch at least a little." I grabbed a napkin from the table and wrote Kimidori's number on it, then handed it to Miss Suzumiya. She looked at it, studying it for a second before asking a question. "Four one six... I don't recognize the area code."

No wonder, really. It's on the other side of the planet. "That would be in Toronto." She gives me a look that says she isn't sure where that is, so I clarify. "Canada."

The look on her face changes drastically, now showing surprise and something getting pretty close to joy. She pumps her fist in the air and shouts. "Canada!"

Before I can tell her to keep it down, she wraps her arms around me in a hug that nearly strangles me. Then she runs out the front door and down the street. I take it this means she's going to go to Canada now. Well that certainly was an interesting reunion, and she never once recognized me as the former president of the computer club. That's okay, I can live with one less kick in the face. So long, Haruhi Suzumiya. I hope you find what you're looking for.

* * *

**This is just the prologue. Chapter one will be much longer.**


	2. Toronto

Planes aren't my favorite thing in the world, and I generally avoid getting in them. The thought of flying at insane speeds thousands of meters above the surface of the ocean in a metal tube is sort of unappealing to me. I'm sure plenty of people have the same problem, which doesn't comfort me in the least.

So here I am, sitting at an altitude my species probably wasn't supposed to reach, going faster than I have in my entire life, all because I decided to accompany Haruhi Suzumiya in the search for her missing brigade. For some reason I can't explain, I felt compelled to help her. After she had left the diner, I headed home and changed the message on my answering machine. It now told anyone who called that I would be away for a couple of days. Honestly, I don't know when I'll be back.

After that, I went to the nearest international airport and found the next plane to Canada. I knew that's where Haruhi would be, and I eventually found her. Needless to say, she was shocked to see me again, but I explained my intentions and she accepted the company. She was thankful enough to buy me a ticket, so at least I wouldn't be traveling in terror on my own money.

The phase where I was gripping the arms of my chair in fear had passed, and I was sitting next to Haruhi near the back of the plane. She was engrossed in the in-flight movie, which was a very poor choice involving a hundreds of poisonous snakes aboard an airplane, while I was trying to get some sleep and hopefully settle my stomach. After about ten minutes Haruhi seemed to have gotten bored with the movie, and to my surprise, she turned to me.

"What do you think Kimidori will look like after all this time?"

The question caught me off guard, probably more than it should have, but I managed to answer rather simply. "Probably about twelve years older." Okay, maybe it was a tad snarky, and it definitely looked like Haruhi thought it was.

She frowned a little, but continued. "You think she'll have dyed her hair? I hear most people in Canada have normal hair colors. If she dyed her hair to fit in, we might never find her."

I remember that Emiri Kimidori's hair used to be a pale green, but I always thought it was just dyed that way. Haruhi's treating it like that was her natural color, which seems just a bit preposterous. Before I could answer either way, she continued her line of thought.

"Although, I guess green roots would look a little off." So she does think that was Kimidori's natural hair color. I'll have to ask her in person when we find her. Haruhi, of course, hadn't stopped there. "Gee, I wonder if we'll run into Asakura by any chance..."

I couldn't let that one slip by without further explanation. "Asakura? What do you mean?"

She looked at me like I should have known who that was. "Ryoko Asakura! She was at our school until she moved to Canada. She was really only there for a week or two before she left, and it seemed a little sudden. Don't you think it looked like she was expecting to stay there for longer?"

Oh, yes, I remember her now. Ryoko Asakura... way out of my league. To be fair, "my league" is closer to hers now than it was then, but I'm sure she's grown up a lot too... and now I'm imagining what she might be like now. Perfect. I'm in the middle of a conversation and I can't stop thinking about a hotty I haven't seen in, well, I guess fifteen years. Where was I... Oh, right, I was going to reply to Haruhi.

"Yeah, she probably still looks good."

Wait... what? That's not what I meant to say. I looked over to Haruhi, expecting a glare, only to see that she was holding back laughter. Why did I expect a glare? It's not like Haruhi has anything to be jealous of. I started trying to think of something to deflect the humiliation from that statement, stuff like "I mean, if you're into that kind of thing" or "That's not to say you don't look good", but I quickly realized that I shouldn't try digging my grave deeper so long as no one else has noticed that it's actually a grave.

I decided to wait for Haruhi's response, which she eventually gave once the laughter had subsided. "Hey, are you married?"

Again, I wasn't expecting this, but also again, there's really no problem with answering. And this is Haruhi Suzumiya we're talking about, so I should stop being surprised by things she does. I guess I just thought she would have grown up a bit more.

I shrugged and smiled. "Yeah, uh... no."

She grinned, though it was slightly disconcerting. "I bet I can get you hooked up with Kimidori when we get there. I hope she's not married. That way, she's fair game!"

Why would I... where did this come from? I gotta clear this up immediately. "How about you let me work out my own romantic relationships. If you really want to set something up for Kimidori, ask her out yourself." I bet that was a bad choice of words.

She looked at me with an evil grin. "I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? Maybe you could come along and-"

I interrupted before she could finish and I found out where that thought was going. "I knew that was a bad idea to say the moment I said it, so let's forget it happened, shall we?"

She looked disappointed, but I think I could tell she was faking it. She folded her arms and looked away from me. I figured she would start talking again when she felt like it, so I decided to see what was happening with the movie. As soon as I glanced up, I saw the image of a Boa Constrictor swallowing a guy whole. Two problems with this. First: I'm still on a plane. I didn't need that. Second: the Boa Constrictor is not a poisonous species. I don't really know much about snakes, but I'm sure most people know that much. That shouldn't be a problem, except that the movie is about poisonous snakes. The whole point is that they're poisonous. You can't just... ugh, forget it.

Okay, I got something, here we go. "So what about you? Are you married?"

She turned to me, one eyebrow raised suspiciously. "Why?"

"Well, you asked me, so I figured I'd ask you."

She just stared at me this time. She was going to answer, she just wanted to make sure I knew she was still in charge of the expedition. Apparently, asking her a question challenges her authority. She may some control issues. We'll work through it.

She sighed and gave up. "No, I'm not married either. Never really had time for a romantic relationship since high school."

As I recall, she actively avoided it in high school so it's her own fault. I was about to ask further questions on the subject when the seat belt light came on. We're there already? The movie's not even done. Not that I cared about the movie, but how many people are going to be wondering how it ends for the rest of their lives? I know I don't want to be thinking about that movie for that long.

So I went through the whole gripping my seat for dear life thing again as we landed. The whole trip from Tokyo to Toronto took around an hour and a half. It took me the same amount of time to get from our hometown to the international airport in Tokyo. What can I say, air travel has come a long way in the past ten years.

Haruhi watched out the window, her mouth wide open in awe. I couldn't quite see at the same angle, but I gather it was the unbelievable amounts of snow. I mean, we get snow in Japan, but never once is it anything like this. Maybe further North, I guess, but I haven't traveled that far...

Then I caught a glimpse of it. Now I knew what Haruhi was looking at, and now I believe the Canadians have good reason to be proud of it. I've read about it before, but seeing it myself is beyond amazing. A quick glance told me that everyone else on this side of the plane was looking at it too. I tried, and failed, to see the top, but the massive structure vanished into the clouds above us. I could even see the CN Tower standing in front of it, giving me something to compare it to.

"The Toronto Space Elevator..."

...

It took me a moment to realize Haruhi had spoken. I slowly nodded. "Yeah..."

She grinned like a madwoman. "We can't be far off from first contact now."

Why, thank you, Haruhi. That kind of remark usually kills the mood. I'll grant that it didn't work this time, but that's just because this thing is way too immense for even you to ruin. I'd be surprised if there's anywhere in the city where you couldn't see it... Gee, the CN Tower looks really outdated now.

Haruhi's bright smile didn't fade. "Yuki was always really smart. I wonder if they got her to help build that thing. Maybe she designed it or something." She turned to me. "I read that the base of the structure is larger than the SkyDome. Do you think that's true?"

I shook my head, preferring to stay skeptical about claims that ridiculous. "I suppose it's possible, but I'd rather find out for sure before I go telling everyone like it's a fact."

Of course, this is Haruhi. She didn't let it stop at that. "They say the ones in Moscow and Rio De Janeiro are even bigger at the base, but this one is the tallest so far. I guess that's to be expected, seeing as this one was started first. The one in Moscow is supposed to be close though."

I wonder if she still remembers why we came to this country. "So, should we just go to Russia now?"

She frowned, but obviously realized it was a joke. "Maybe... but we have to get the brigade back together first. I wouldn't want them missing out on something like tha-"

She was cut off as the plane touched down on the runway. The cabin jostled a little, causing certain features on Haruhi to bounce up and down humorously. ...Her hair. I mean her hair.

For the next few minutes, we just went through the motions. We grabbed what little luggage we had brought from the overhead storage compartments and proceeded to shuffle towards the exit. I hadn't really done this before, and it didn't look like Haruhi had either, but we managed to get through by simply following everyone else's example. Before we knew it, we were standing outside the terminal, staring up at the space elevator.

After a few moments, Haruhi began walking. She ignored all the taxis, dragging her carry-on behind her. I had no other reason to be here, so I just followed her. She was a few steps ahead of me, so I couldn't tell, but it seemed her good mood from earlier had suddenly dropped off. I don't blame her. She's trying to find one person in a city of millions. I suppose it would be alright to remind her about the phone number.

"Hey, maybe you should call her to find out where she lives."

She turned and stared at me like she had completely forgotten that phones were a thing. She suddenly began looking around frantically. When she spotted a public phone, she rushed over and started fiddling with it. I walked over just in time to hear her swear at the unfortunate machine.

She looked up at me. "You wouldn't happen to have any Canadian money, would you? It takes three quarters, and I don't even know what the exchange rate is."

Oh, yes, that's right, different countries have different currencies. Should have seen that one coming. Lucky for you, Suzumiya, I managed to deal with that while we were at the airport. You may be stuck with yen, but I now have Canadian dollars. I am, however, a little annoyed that the numbers I can associate to my wallet are a lot smaller. Something about Canadian money being worth a bit more...

I reached into my pocket and pulled out three shiny silvery coins and handed them to her. It's only fair. She did pay for my plane ticket. She smiled warmly, warmer than I ever got from her in high school, and dropped the coins into the phone. I stepped away while she started dialing the number, and that's when I heard a voice from somewhere behind me.

I turned to see we were standing out front of an auto shop. The garage was open and I could see someone working on a car inside. She was a woman about my age, with long dark hair that shined almost blue in the light from the garage. She had her head stuck into the front of a car that she was working on, and she called to someone on the other side of a door that lead to an office or something.

"Emiri, come help me with this!"

...Wait...

Another woman, about the same age, walked through the door. I blame Haruhi for these thoughts being in my head, but this woman was beautiful, and there was no way it wasn't Emiri Kimidori. I'd recognize the pale green hair and that soft smile anywhere.

What am I thinking?

The first woman called rather loudly, seeing as (I'm still assuming it's Kimidori) was right beside her. "Rev the motor a few times so I can see if it's working right!"

Haruhi's voice came from behind me, strained and aggravated. "She's not home! Now what am I supposed to do?"

I turned back to her, pointing over my shoulder at the auto shop. "I think I might have found her. And to answer your earlier question, I guess she didn't change her hair color."

I looked back just in time to see Kimidori get into the car. The other woman called again. "Okay, I'm ready! Start 'er up!"

Haruhi started walking towards them, though she looked somewhat in shock, so I followed her once again. When we were standing just outside the garage, the car motor started up and...

She started screaming. The woman with her head under the hood started screaming in terror. Kimidori obviously heard her, as she turned the motor off again and started trying to get out.

The voice coming from the front of the car started yelling at her to find some scissors. I believe her exact words were along the lines of "Emiri, get some scissors quick! My hair's caught and the engine is burning my face off!" with a few extra expletives I don't care to repeat.

Noticing how slowly Kimidori was moving, Haruhi snapped into action and began searching for a pair of scissors. She managed to locate some fairly quickly and rushed over to help. The woman grabbed the scissors and started hacking away at her hair with them until she could pull her head out. She immediately dropped the scissors and ran through the back door, her hand on her cheek.

I felt Kimidori bump into me, and was surprised when she didn't look up. Instead, she reached up with her hands and felt at my face. I looked over to Haruhi, who had just noticed us and was trying hard to not laugh.

When Kimidori spoke, I swear it was like the voice of an angel. "I remember you."

All evidence pointed to it, yes, but at this point we still didn't know for certain that this actually was who we were looking for. This is where one asks for her by name.

"You are Emiri Kimidori?"

She nodded, her eyes keeping level with my shoulder. "That is my name. Who are you?"

"I am a friend you knew in high school." Truth be told, I never really talked to her much when we were in school together. In fact, I probably interacted with Haruhi more, but I was definitely better friends with Kimidori. "I came here with Haruhi Suzumiya."

Kimidori stepped away from me and started walking towards the back door, albeit slowly and wobbly. I heard her speak to me even as Haruhi jumped out of the green-haired woman's path. "Haruhi is here? Where is she?"

I guess she's harder to recognize than I am. "You just walked past her."

Kimidori froze. Then, just when I was about to ask if everything was alright, she started running to the back door and... ran face first into the wall beside the door. This might sound a little stupid, or maybe even insensitive, but I think something might be wrong with her.

She stumbled backward and rubbed her face where she had hit. She yelped a few times until the door opened again, revealing the other woman. Seeing her up close, I could now see that the garage light wasn't responsible for the blue coloration of her hair. It seemed just natural... like Kimidori's green.

She pried Kimidori's hands away from her face and tutted her sternly. "You shouldn't be running, Emiri. You keep hurting yourself that way."

Kimidori just shook her head. "Haruhi's here. She's finally here, Miss Asakura."

Dead silence.

Well, okay, as much as you can get that in a city as big as Toronto. Even so, the silence seemed suddenly oppressive. It was like there had been a sonic bang in the room and we hadn't yet recovered... or something like that.

Ryoko Asakura, I recognized her now, slowly looked up at Haruhi. Her face was a mixture of shock and... never mind, it was just shock. After what seemed like ten minutes, she finally forced a small smile that wrinkled the bandages she had recently applied to her left cheek. She briefly glanced at me, but she focused on Haruhi.

"It's nice to see you again, Haruhi. I was beginning to think you had forgotten about us."

Haruhi didn't respond. She just stood there and stared. Maybe I should say something... or I could use this opportunity to say what Kimidori and Asakura were wearing so you can better visualize the scene. First, let me remind you that it's Winter and that there's snow covering most of the ground outside. Now that we've got that understood it makes infinitely more sense that they were both wearing sweaters. Kimidori's sweater was black, and she wore a faded white coat over it. Needless to say, she made those clothes look stunning.

Asakura's sweater was bright red and had the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. It was also covered in dark stains that I assumed were oil or grease. I could go on about how Asakura looked, but I'd like to go back to Kimidori if you don't mind. I just noticed something about her eyes. They're still bright green, with a illustrious gleam to them, but something is different. I would have written it off as simply not remembering her too well, but I'm sure I would have remembered something like this. Her eyes were dead.

"She's blind?"

Kimidori flinched at the words. The other two turned to me, one shocked and the other worried. It took me a while to fully realize I had said that out loud, but I guess it was a bit obvious. She ran straight into a wall, and she was even bumping into things when she walked slowly. Furthermore, she had run right past Haruhi and she put her hands on my face before she recognized me...

Wait a second. How did she recognize me that way? She never did that while we were at school together. She wasn't blind then, so she wouldn't have. Maybe she's just really smart and could remember what my face looked like, and managed to match that up to what my face felt like. It's a bit of a stretch, but I don't see that it's impossible.

Asakura broke the awkward silence. "You noticed, then. It is unfortunate that this happened so soon after meeting. I had hoped you would get to see Nagato first."

Haruhi brightened up. "You know where Yuki lives?"

Asakura sighed and nodded. "Sort of... but, Haruhi... she's very... different from what you remember. We... well, we all are, but she's changed the most."

Haruhi looked hopeful. If I didn't know better, I'd think she was on the verge of exploding. She hopped up and down. "Where is she? Can you take us there?"

Asakura shrugged, looking to me for help. I have no idea what she expects from me, so all I can do is wait for her to answer. Asakura finally gave in. "Yes, I can take you to her. She... she's at the graveyard."

All the color drained from Haruhi's face.


	3. Nagato

Ryoko Asakura's laugh is rather disconcerting. Her giggles are cute and all, but an all out laugh can be terrifying. Haruhi and I just stared at her like she had gone insane. She was doubled over and obviously having trouble breathing because she was laughing so hard.

She stopped and looked up at Haruhi. "I didn't think you'd take it that seriously! She's not dead, silly!" She fell back into laughing. If she tried telling us anything else, it was unintelligible.

Kimidori spoke softly, hardly audible behind Asakura's laughing. "The shop's not really open right now, so we could take you there."

Haruhi shook her head, returning most of the color. She smiled sheepishly at Kimidori. "You driving?"

Asakura stopped laughing and crossed her arms, glaring at Haruhi. "Seriously? Already making fun of the blind girl? What's wrong with you?" Haruhi started stammering out an apology, but Asakura lightly punched her shoulder. "I'm just messing with you. Emiri loves being made fun of. Let's go. I'll drive."

As much as I doubted that Kimidori loved being mocked, she simply smiled warmly and felt her way over to the car. Asakura jumped into the driver's seat and had started the car before anyone else managed to get in. Eventually, I found myself in the back, sitting behind Haruhi and beside Kimidori.

We were on our way down the road when Haruhi turned to Asakura. "Hey, where exactly is Yuki?"

The blunette (that word is and always will be ridiculous) frowned. "Well, I wasn't actually lying. She is at a nearby cemetery, but she's just visiting."

Her frown must have been contagious, as Haruhi now had one as well. "What happened?"

This time, it was Kimidori that spoke. "About eight years ago she got married. Her husband died last year, and she's been visiting him every day since."

Haruhi gave a look that said she was sorry for Yuki... I mean Nagato. After a few seconds of silence she managed to choke out the same question. "What happened?"

When Asakura gave a look that said she was uncomfortable with the question, Kimidori answered again. "He was at work, he was an engineer working on the space elevator, and he just disappeared. They found him a few hours later. Someone had stabbed him repeatedly..."

Asakura pulled the car over to the side of the road rather suddenly. I was about to ask why when she started coughing violently. Haruhi leaned towards her door, her eyes fixed on Asakura. Kimidori leaned forward and reached around the chair in front of her, patting her friend on the back forcefully. This seemed to work. After a short while, Asakura stopped coughing. She paused to catch her breath before pulling the car back onto the road.

There was silence for a considerable length of time before Haruhi finally asked. "What the heck was that?"

Asakura shook her head. "It's nothing. I'll be fine. I'm just feeling a little sick is all."

"Is it contagious?" Maybe that shouldn't have been my first question, but I might as well get to know.

She smile into the rear view mirror. "No, you're all perfectly safe. It can't hurt you at all."

Hiding her face behind Asakura's chair, Kimidori shot me a concerned glance that told me there was more to the situation than Asakura would tell us. The two in the front seat fell silent, so I decided to start up a different line of conversation with Kimidori.

"So what about you? Are you married?" I just pulled a page out of Haruhi's book, I know, but what else is there to talk about?

Kimidori smiled sweetly. "Oh, no... waiting for the right guy can take a while, especially for someone like me."

Haruhi jumped in. "What's more important? Personality or looks?"

Asakura burst out laughing. "You did it again, Haruhi!"

The brunette, not blunette, blushed heavily. "Oh my g- I am so sorry, Kimidori!"

The blind woman just giggled. "Well, to answer your question... looks, of course."

Still blushing, Haruhi smiled nervously. "Okay, so what about you? You married or anything, Asakura?"

The blunette, not brunette, shook her head. "There wouldn't really be much of a point, I don't think."

Haruhi frowned, and I noticed that Kimidori didn't seem happy with the answer either. Haruhi was the one to press further. "Well, why not?"

"I just don't think it's worth my time, is all. It's not a big deal, so forget about it."

She didn't sound like she actually believed it, but I didn't feel like pressing her or waiting for Haruhi to do it for me. I looked back to the woman beside me. "So, Miss Kimidori... what exactly do you do around the shop?"

She smiled at me. "I guess I'm the receptionist. I answer phone calls and write everything down." Haruhi looked like she was about to ask how, but Kimidori kept talking. "I'm very good at remembering things, and I have my workspace set up precisely the way I need it. Asakura makes sure no one tries to move any of my things around."

Haruhi was about to speak again, but I beat her to it. "Who would try and move your stuff around?"

She grimaced. "Nagato, mostly." Haruhi looked like she wanted to object to this concept, but again, Kimidori hadn't finished. "Affectionately, of course. She really does care for me just as much as Asakura."

Haruhi was surprised, and made that known to Kimidori. "You mean she plays tricks on you? She never used to do that."

Asakura interjected. "We did tell you that she's changed a lot. You should hear the music she listens to."

Kimidori hit the back of Asakura's seat hard enough to knock her forward so that her head hit the steering wheel. "If she wants them to know what she listens to, she'll play it while they're around. It's not up to you to tell them."

Having seen what I just did, I have decided to avoid getting on Kimidori's bad side. She looks and acts sweet, and probably really is, but it would appear she has the capability of being rather violent. I suppose that requires her to know where her target is, but it's not like that's a comfort.

Her hand connecting with my face brought me back to reality. She looked concerned. "You're frowning."

Was I? I guess I was too busy realizing that you're actually just as risky to be around as Haruhi. "Sorry. I'll stop." I made a fake smile, but that seemed to upset her more.

"And you've been watching me for a while now."

How did she... "How did you..."

"You hadn't just turned your face when I touched it, so you must have been looking this way already. How long have you been staring?"

Ah, crap. "Who said I was staring?" I was.

Asakura gave a short laugh. "I'll vouch for it. You've been staring at her since we got in the car, at least."

Fine then. "Better view than either of you two." And now either they will kill me or Kimidori will. I should have known better either way, because Haruhi's next words made me feel like I had been set up, though I knew there was no time for them to have planned this.

"I knew you liked her. Why didn't you admit it when we were on the plane?"

Kimidori's head snapped over to look at me, even though she couldn't, her unseeing eyes wide with shock and her mouth agape. I can only wonder what was going through her head at the moment. It couldn't be anything good for me, could it? I place the blame solely on Haruhi for whatever grim demise lies in store for me now.

While I was on this train of thought, I noticed Haruhi had turned around and was waiting for a response from me. How did she expect me to answer that, especially with Kimidori siting right there. I responded in the only way I could; a silent, horrified glare.

Kimidori shuffled her feet uncomfortably. "Well... uh, you call me Emiri, by the way."

"And you can just call me Ryoko." Our driver added. "We're not in Japan anymore, after all."

Any close connection I may have just gotten from Ki... Emiri... It just disappeared. Any further thought I could give it vanished when the car slowed and turned into a parking lot. 'Miss Asakura' quickly found a parking spot and slid in, shutting the engine down.

Then we just sat in the car and waited.

The parking lot was set beside a cemetery, with a path starting from it and winding amongst the rows of tombstones. There were other cars parked around us and a fair number of people in the grave yard itself, but nobody that looked like Nagato, or at least not to me. I'm probably the least qualified person here to decide what she would look like... no, I definitely am.

On the other hand, Haruhi seemed pretty confident she had located her old friend. "Is that her?" She pointed to a lone figure that just stood silently in front of a small plaque.

Asakura nodded. "How'd you guess?"

Haruhi smirked. "She's not moving at all. I guess she hasn't changed as much as you thought."

Indeed, only her hair and open jacket flowing in a light wind denoted the figure as something other than a statue. She wasn't terribly far from where we had parked, but the brim of a cap kept her face out of view.

Of course, Haruhi wasn't about to let Nagato have her peace, and she quickly opened her door and stepped outside. Asakura hurried to follow her and Emiri looked like she wanted to as well. I got out too, helping Emiri so that she didn't hit her head on anything.

Ahead of us, Asakura managed to get a hold of Haruhi. "Look, Haruhi, maybe we shouldn't disturb her."

Haruhi shook her off, but stopped. "I won't disturb her. I'll just be waiting when she's done." She continued walking, her pace slower and more controlled, and stopped a few meters behind Nagato.

I felt Emiri linking our arms together, so I looked down to her and asked. "Do you know what Nagato thinks about Haruhi now? Will she be fine with her showing up like this?"

Emiri smiled up at me like an angel, but her smile quickly disappeared. "Nagato will be fine, I think. It might take a bit for them to get used to each other again, but I doubt they parted on bad terms after high school. Nagato hasn't really had much reason to be angry at anyone until the last two or three years."

Angry? I was just wondering if we might be intruding on her private matters.

I looked down at Emiri again to see that she was giving me a knowing look. I couldn't leave it alone. "There's something you're not telling me."

She just nodded. "Yes, there is."

...And apparently, she didn't plan to tell me any time soon. I shrugged. "I can't help at all if you don't tell me anything."

She led me to a spot next to a tree, a couple meters behind Haruhi and Asakura. We stood and watched, expecting something interesting in this reunion. We stood there for around ten minutes before Nagato finally moved. If she had noticed Haruhi or the rest of us, she hadn't indicated. In fact, she hadn't moved at all since we arrived, but then...

Nagato turned her head slowly until her right eye was visible to us, taking in everyone present. Her mouth wasn't curved in any direction whatsoever, smile or frown, giving her an expression very near emotionless. If I remember correctly, this shouldn't surprise me at all.

She turned all the way around to face us, but I could tell her focus was on Haruhi. Now that I could see her better, I realized that she had actually gotten very tall. For a second I wondered if I'd be looking up to her, but I could see for sure she was taller than the other women. Her hair was longer too, reaching just below her shoulders, and something else had grown significantly as well...

Moving on, I noticed that she was staring at Haruhi pretty intensely, and her face was slowly starting to form some sort of emotion. I haven't seen the girl in over a decade, and she never really showed emotion when we did know each other, but the expression that was rapidly taking over her features looked a little familiar. If I was reading her right, which I very well may not have been, she was wearing a look of complete abject horror.

Her eyes briefly moved over to Asakura, quickly returning to Haruhi before she spoke. "Why did you bring her here?"

Asakura smiled, trying to pretend nothing was wrong. "Yuki, this is Haruhi Suzumi-"

Nagato cut her off, her voice coming out strained and probably a bit louder than she had intended. "I know who she is. Why is she here?"

Asakura glanced over to Haruhi, who answered the question herself. "I'm bringing the brigade back together. If you know where to find any of the others..."

She trailed off when the look on Nagato's face changed. Now she really did look angry. She wasn't fuming or anything, just somewhat cross. She just shook her head. "No."

Haruhi looked uncomfortable with that response, and you can't really blame her when you consider how much plane tickets cost nowadays. She wasn't about to let her efforts go to waste, and she definitely wasn't going to stop trying.

Nagato looked over to Emiri, and without another word, started walking toward the parking lot. When she walked past us, Emiri turned and tugged me to follow her. Nagato obviously didn't mind Haruhi too much, as she wasted no time climbing into the back of the car we had all arrived in.

I looked back and saw that Asakura was right behind us. Haruhi was walking to the car at a much slower speed, and she looked a little depressed, but she would probably be okay.

Asakura walked over to the drivers' side door and opened it, smiling in our direction. "I hope you don't mind, Emiri, but you're going to have to sit in the middle." She called out to the straggler of the group. "We're waiting on you now, Suzumiya."

Haruhi stepped up her pace and made it to the car before Emiri was even inside. I got in last, stuck in the back on Emiri's right, behind Haruhi again. Asakura smiled into the rear view mirror at me and Emiri, as well as Nagato, looking like she was about to say something.

Nagato stopped her in her tracks by punching the back of her headrest, sending her head into the steering wheel and honking the car horn. "Start the car, Ryoko!"

Rubbing her face, Asakura turned the key in the ignition. "Okay, okay, geez. Every single time. Give me a break already."

Nagato shrugged. "Which limb?"

Asakura responded as if she had it rehearsed, rolling down her window and pointing at a nearby tree. "One of those."

Nagato grinned. "You want it to break your neck or your back?"

By now, anyone could tell they were playing. However, Asakura's attention was suddenly taken by the sound of a compact disk sliding into the car's CD player. She glared into the rear view mirror at Nagato, a look of mock fear on her face.

"You didn't."

To which Nagato just nodded triumphantly.

Then the music started playing. I honestly don't know how to even describe that music, so I won't bother trying, but the experience wasn't all bad. While Asakura whined and Nagato laughed, though it was obvious both were just having fun, Emiri leaned away from the purple-haired woman and into me. I refuse to let Haruhi know this, but I'm seriously considering trying for a relationship with Emiri. She seems to have been giving me some sort of indication that she might be willing to try it as well.

The drive back to the auto shop was quiet once we left the parking lot. I could sense that whatever Nagato hadn't liked about Haruhi being at the cemetery, she had at least forgiven Asakura for it. I only hoped we would get a chance to find out what the problem really was, and maybe get a chance to rectify any wrongs.

* * *

I found myself in a smoke-filled room with two other people, one seated and one standing. They had their backs to me so I couldn't see their faces, but I was sure I knew one of them. Orange light from the lamps all around us reflected off the bare skin of the seated person's back.

I stepped further into the room until I could see what was happening. The person I didn't know was standing, applying some sort of device to the other person's back. Black tattoos covered the seated person's arms down to just before their wrists, the patterns spiraling over their shoulder and down their front.

I recognized who this was and called their name. They looked at me, a scowl on their lips quickly turned into a friendly smile. I wasn't here to talk them out of the tattoos, so they must have figured I was just going to say hello. Maybe get a tattoo myself...

No, that's not right. They are wrong, of course. I'd never get a tattoo. I do have a very good reason to be here though. I heard what happened, but I don't think they have just yet. That's why I'm here. I need to be the one to tell them.

The tattoo artist says she's done and goes into another room. And that's when I explain what happened. Something bad happened, and it's too late to try and fix it. There's absolutely nothing either of us can do about it, and we both know it.

Tears are filling my friends eyes as I hand them their jacket, which they use to cover themselves. They give me one last tearful look before running out of the room and out of the building, already knowing who is responsible. They think they know who is responsible, but I'm the one who really knows the answer.

Knowing won't change anything though. We can't do anything anymore. We had power once, long ago. Power that could not only let us take revenge, but would let us undo everything that caused the tragedy we now face. It's all gone now. We were left behind, and now we have no more power.

I look over at the side of the room before leaving. A flash of green caught my attention briefly. I see a mirror on the wall that reflects an image of green. Light, pale green that flows around my shoulders. Bright emerald green in my eyes.

It's a reflection of me. Emiri Kimidori.

I exit the building to try and find my friend before they do something they'll regret. I bump into the doorway on my way out, a little painful reminder that my sight is going...

* * *

What... just happened?

Was that a dream? If so, why was I temporarily Emiri Kimidori? For a brief moment I could see, hear, smell, and feel a different place. When I looked in the mirror in that... dream... I saw Emiri's face.

And I knew things that I know I don't know. It was almost as if a voice had been telling me what was going on. No... that's not right... it was exactly like that. It was Emiri's voice. She told me what was happening, like she was narrating or something.

I looked down at the woman who was leaning against me, smiling as she tugged at her hair innocently. She snuggled a bit closer, starting to get to far into my personal space. She gave me a look that said she knew what I had just seen. How could she have known? Did she do that? Did she show that to me?

Emiri kept smiling and just nodded to me.


	4. Memory

Asakura pulled the car into the auto shop garage and stopped the engine. Nagato was out the door immediately, walking into the building and closing the door behind her. Asakura jumped out after her, turning to the rest of us and giving us the signal to wait in the garage. She may have meant us to stay in the car, but there was no harm done either way.

Emiri shoved at me until I opened the door and got out, helping her step out afterward. Haruhi jumped out, slamming the car door shut behind her and walking over to a trio of chairs set up in the corner. I led Emiri over to the chairs as well, helping her sit down. I took the third chair, hoping to get a good rest. I should know better.

Haruhi groaned loudly and leaned back. "Emiri... What's wrong with Yuki? Really?"

Emiri shook her head, frowning. "I don't know. She's grown emotionally a lot since high school, and she's better at expressing herself now. Maybe she blames you for something that happened back then, and she's just now showing you how she really felt."

Haruhi was silent, so I took the opportunity to speak. "You were something of a control freak in high school. Maybe she didn't actually want to be there..."

I was interrupted by Haruhi shooting up out of her seat. "Are you crazy? The SOS Brigade was the best thing that ever happened to any of us! There's no way she's angry about all the awesome adventures we had!"

I was going to say something, but Emiri beat me to it. "It's exactly that attitude that would make me hate being there, knowing that you thought I was having fun and wouldn't hear any evidence to the contrary."

That was essentially the same thing I was going to say, just she said it better than I would have. Haruhi was taken aback, looking shocked that anyone could possibly not have enjoyed the SOS Brigade's activities.

She shook her head. "What do you mean?"

Emiri explained. "She was really shy in high school. When you barged in and claimed her clubroom, she only let you take it because she didn't want to make any trouble. If she had been as expressive then as she is now... she just might have thrown you out the door."

Haruhi fell silent again. After a few moments, she sat down. "Fine then... Does Yuki talk about me to you and Ryoko."

Emiri stared blindly at the floor. "The only member of the brigade that she actually ever talks about anymore is-"

Haruhi interrupted. "Let me guess. Kyon, right?"

Now she sounded somewhat angry. I don't like being this close to Haruhi when she's getting angry. It makes me feel like I'm in danger. I'm struggling not to instinctively cover my face to try and protect it, because that might make her even angrier.

Emiri sighed and continued where she left off, correcting Haruhi in the process. "No. She only ever talks about Miss Asahina. It usually sounds like there was something going on between them."

Haruhi perked up at whatever mischievous thoughts this particular wording planted in her head. "Something going on? Like a relationship?"

Emiri's eyes went wide and she held up her hands defensively. "That came out totally wrong. It's nothing like that. No, what I meant to say was that it sounds like Miss Asahina had been mistreating Yuki through high school. And that might explain why Yuki never spoke up when you abused Miss Asahina."

Haruhi stood up, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the green haired woman. "I did not abuse Mikuru! We played fun dress-up games together!"

Emiri, unable to see Haruhi's glare, just clasped her hands together in her lap and frowned. "I had expected you would have grown up some since then, but it appears not. Maybe that's why Yuki isn't happy to see you."

There was a loud sound like a clap, and Haruhi drew her hand back. Emiri rubbed her cheek, her expression somewhat soured beyond a frown. I had no choice at this point, stepping between the two in an attempt to protect Emiri.

"Haruhi, stop! That was completely uncalled for."

Haruhi was losing it. "Did you hear what she said to me? She has no right to talk to me like that!"

At times like this it's actually better to act like you might be convinced to side with her. Might as well give it a shot. I mean, otherwise she'll probably just tear me in half or something... I don't think she can really do that, but better not to test her.

I glanced behind me at Emiri before turning back to Haruhi. "Maybe you're right, but you should find out from Nagato first. Don't take it out on Emiri either way. What she said is something you have to consider though, at least from Nagato's perspective. You don't know what she's thinking, so you should at least try to find out."

Haruhi shot me a glare that said she wanted to stomp me, but then it softened. She backed away from me, crossing her arms. "Fine, you win. But I'm not going in there until Ryoko says it's safe."

Just then, said blunette opened the door into the garage and shut it behind her, leaning back against it and letting out a deep breath. "I say we give it an hour or two before anyone tries going in there."

Haruhi frown. "She's really not happy to see me?"

Asakura nodded. "Yeah, you could say that. It might only be part of it though. I did clean her room this morning, so..." She noticed the red coloring on Emiri's normally pale face. "What happened to you?"

Emiri shook her head. "Didn't see where I was going. Bumped something stronger than me."

She wasn't very good at lying, but in all honesty she almost wasn't. Nearly every part of her statement was correct, just in a different sense. Asakura wasn't so easily fooled and turned crossly to Haruhi with her hands on her hips.

"You slapped her, didn't you?" Haruhi nodded, but hesitantly due to her situation. If Asakura was mad at her too, this whole visit would be over very quickly. Asakura, however, turned to Emiri. "What did you say to her?"

It probably wasn't my smartest move, seeing as I still don't know what I'm dealing with really, but I couldn't let Emiri take this by herself. I stepped in. Call me an idiot if you want.

"She gets slapped and you want to know what she said? Aren't you concerned or something?"

Before Asakura could deliver some sort of retort, Nagato bumped the door opened and wandered over to the car. She briefly looked at us, then shook her head and opened the car door to retrieve her CD. As she was leaving again, she mumbled something barely audible. "Just came to get my music. You can all go back to being idiots now."

"Wait! Yuki!" Haruhi ran over to her, hoping to keep her from leaving. "Come on, you've got to talk to me."

Nagato only turned her head slightly, her eyes fixing on Haruhi, then moving over to Asakura, then to Emiri. She sorta skipped over me and went back to Haruhi. She turned back away from us and, pulling her cap down a bit in the front, she sighed. If you ask me, it sounded like she was giving in.

She opened the door, but didn't walk through just yet. She looked back at Haruhi. "Yeah... I know. Just not right now."

After she left again, Asakura clapped her hands together and smiled. "Well, that went a lot better than I expected. We're still not sure what she actually thinks of you, but at least she doesn't blatantly want to murder you. Let's get out of this garage. There's a kitchen inside and I can make a pretty good sandwich."

Haruhi glanced back to Asakura. "A sandwich? Anything else?"

Asakura shrugged. "Well, I can cook pretty good, but we're not really well stocked here... unless you can convince Yuki to share her stuff."

Emiri nodded and stood. "Yeah, me and Ryoko live at our own places, but Yuki lives in the building here. She's got all her own food, but she might not want to let us have any."

Haruhi understood what they meant. "And all you've got that isn't hers is sandwich material."

Asakura opened the door and ushered us in, smiling. "Exactly. Come on then."

Emiri reached out her hand, so I took it and helped her indoors. On the other side of the door was a small office-like room. A few chairs were set against the wall in the area in front of a large desk. The desk itself had all sorts of things on it, including a computer, some photos, clipboards, a CD player, and an abacus.

Asakura spread her arms out as if she was presenting the place to a potential buyer. "This is where Emiri works. She does all her amazing blind girl stunts here"

Emiri nodded to her. "Yes. Please don't touch anything or I might never find it again."

Haruhi eyed the computer. "Do you, like, have a Braille screen or something?"

Emiri, who was still attached to my arm, laughed at this idea. "No. Yuki's suggested I get one, but every time I go to the computer store I can't seem to see any." Asakura and Haruhi had a good laugh at this, then Emiri pointed to the keyboard. "Braille keys though. I've memorized the keyboard, but it does help me catch spelling mistakes."

Once the blind jokes had cleared, I pointed at something else on the desk. "So what's with the abacus?"

Emiri let go of my hand and felt her way into her workspace. She picked up the doohickey in question and showed it to me, a big smile on her face. "I got this in the mail as a Christmas present ten years ago. I haven't seen the person who gave it to me since high school. We haven't talked much until just recently..."

Oh... I get it. I gave that to her. I remember it now, but I didn't expect her to keep something like that for so long. Of course, Asakura and Haruhi are right here with us, so I'm not really comfortable with letting them know that Emiri is practically fangirling over something I gave her.

I just smiled, focusing on something else she said. "Another blind joke already? You really don't have a problem with those, do you?"

She placed the abacus back in it's spot on the desk and nodded in my direction. "Of course. I get free reign over blunette jokes that way."

I looked over to Asakura, who smiled while shaking her head. She grabbed Haruhi's hand and dragged her into the back room through a doorway behind the desk. "Come on! It's sandwich time!"

Emiri stepped around her desk and placed her hand back in mine. "You recognized it, didn't you?"

"Of course I did. I had no idea it would have lasted this long, but I know it's the one I sent you." It occurred to me right about then that we were technically alone now. "Hey... about what happened earlier..."

She shook her head. "I told you. I should have paid more attention to where I was going. I went somewhere I shouldn't have much faster than I should have. It's not the first time."

I sighed. "While I admire your ability to make it sound like something completely different happened without actually lying, I still don't think Haruhi should have hit you. Either way, I'm talking about what happened in the car."

She stopped moving suddenly, barely even breathing. She only managed one sound. "Oh..."

I continued. "I didn't understand most of it, but I understood that it was you in that... what was it? A dream? A vision?"

She nodded, though she didn't look happy to be talking about it. "A memory. I... It was a memory I was sharing with you."

"Right. I could sense a lot of strong emotions, and that something bad had just happened. It was in a tattoo parlor, right?" She nodded and indicated that I should keep going. "The person you were talking to was a friend, but I couldn't tell who." I was hoping she'd fill in the blanks, but it seemed like she had other ideas.

Emiri frowned, looking down at the floor. "I'd rather not..."

"Well, then why did you show it to me? How did you even do it?"

She looked around like she was trying to find a way out of this. "Um... I would have to show you. The reason I can do that... I would have to share another memory for you to understand. Otherwise... if I just tell you, you won't believe me."

I gulped, definitely louder than I intended. I wasn't sure I wanted to go through that again. It wasn't painful or anything, but it was disturbing. However, no guts no glory, right?

"Okay then. Let's do it."

She nodded solemnly. It really didn't look like she was happy about this at all. She looked straight into my eyes and placed her hands on my shoulders. "First, I want you to know that what you're about to see doesn't change anything for the rest of us. I hope it doesn't change anything for you either. Can you... can you promise that you won't let it change what you think of me or the others?"

What others. Whatever. I'll find out. "Alright."

She smiled, somewhat sadly, then she pressed her head against my chest. I can't say that's quite what I expected. Then... everything went black.

* * *

I found myself looking out a window, a blue and green planet far below me with white swirling clouds floating through the atmosphere. There was a faint reflection of pale green in the window, telling me that I was Emiri Kimidori once again.

I turned to look beside me, seeing five other girls also looking down at the planet. Looking down at myself, I realized that I was also a teenager like them. We were being sent down to this planet to observe something... absolutely amazing. There would be others around us, but they had different jobs. The six of us were a team, and we would watch out for each other. I was in charge of the team, and they all trusted me.

Time sped up, fast forwarding through the next three years. Only slowing to normal speed to show a few moments of importance. The first one gave a flash of dissatisfaction with it as I was forced to delete one of my team members, a pink-haired girl. She had started acting strange, and we didn't have the time or resources to fix her properly. Absolute deletion was the only option.

Time slowed to normal again, showing another deletion. This girl had white hair and silver eyes. She fixed me with a betrayed look even as her body dissolved, her deletion carried out by our lavender-haired member at my command. It was then that I realized the fear and anger on her face. Was that there with the last one? I hadn't even thought to look.

Again, time returned to it's normal pace. I saw my second in command, the one with lavender hair, chasing our fourth member down. Like the two before her, she had started to crave freedom. This time I didn't feel the dissatisfaction of the first time, or the guilt of the second time. I felt sad. Those three had wanted freedom, and had all tried to escape their missions to achieve it. I found myself craving freedom as well, but I refused to let it take hold. It wouldn't take over me.

As I watched the girl with short lavender hair chase down the girl with long black hair, I remembered that those three had been on a number of missions before. Older models... yes, that's what they were... they had been shown to have numerous flaws leading to this type of behavior. Me and my second in command are newer than them, so all those problems have been ironed out. We should be able to last at least a good four or five hundred years before something goes wrong.

The chase below us turns around a corner and out of sight. I turn to the only other one on the balcony with me. She has long blue hair, and she happens to be a brand new model. We've been guaranteed that all possibility of malfunction is completely out of the question. We were also told that she's been given the most advanced emotion simulating software, making her blend with the people of this planet more smoothly than the rest of us.

Whether this would prove to be true or not, I determined then and there that I would not let her be deleted. She hadn't lived long enough... it just wasn't right. If something did happen, I would have her disabled. We would reactivate her and place restrictions on her capabilities, confine her to our base of operations, even go so far as to deceive all those around us into thinking she had left the country. We would not, no matter what, delete her. I would later make it clear to both her and my second that my decision applied to both of them, and myself. Deletion was tantamount to murder, and I would not allow any more of it.

We were eventually forced to carry through with this course of action, and much later I found out that my second hadn't actually succeeded in deleting our fourth member that night. Over time, I felt something eating away at me from inside. There was a sense of guilt at what I had done to the first two and then there was... a different type of guilt. For some reason, I felt guilt at letting our fourth member live. I had seen her, how she had changed after severing her up-link. She was not faring well, numerous glitches appearing. The people around her couldn't tell, but she was in constant pain. She had been online for too long.

Speeding forward through time again, we had to leave the high school and go out into the world. Just the three of us now, and we had a new mission objective. We were to go and wait for her to find us, the one who we had observed for three years.

Then one day, we woke up to find our up-link gone. The Data Integration Thought Entity... was gone. No explanation. No warning. It was just gone. All it had left behind was us. Other Interfaces may have been online elsewhere, but we were far away from any of them and had no way to contact them. We soon found out that the Entity had left us a parting gift. We were now fully human. Patience had paid off. Now we had freedom.

Beyond that, we soon found the ability to share thoughts, dreams, ideas, and memories with each other. Not long afterward, my second fell in love with a man who lived nearby. Through her interactions with him she learned, and so did we, and so did he, that this ability worked with normal humans as well.

Speeding time forward, I found myself standing on a steel girder. I looked down at the ground far below, realizing just how dizzyingly high up I was. I was about to back up when I realized how precarious my position was, only a few feet on either side before a very definitely deadly drop. Rather than looking down, I looked forward. Ahead of me I saw a man. He was sitting there, his legs hanging over the edge, enjoying his lunch break. Remembering why I came here, I stepped toward him...

* * *

"STOP!"

She shoved me away from her hard.

My eyes snapped open and I fell back against the wall. My head was swirling, trying to make sense of everything I had just seen. I looked at Emiri, standing in front of me with sweat pouring down her face. I wanted to ask her what it all meant, but... where to even begin?

Asakura and Haruhi rushed into the room to see a sweat-covered Emiri, her arms stretched out having just shoved me away from her. It took a moment for it to register with my mind what they must have been thinking.

Asakura shouted at me. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

There was literally nothing I could say here, which is why I'm glad Emiri answered for me. "Asakura, wait! It was my fault! I... I was the one who went too far." She looked back to me, helping me stand up straight again. "I'm sorry... are you alright?"

Asakura still eyed me suspiciously, but she walked back into the other room. Haruhi followed shortly after. I was about to start asking Emiri what I had seen when, out of nowhere, she reached up and kissed me.

* * *

**Author's Notes: I must let you know that I never read the manga. I'm going off the anime and filling in a few gaps by making stuff up. I do, however, know enough about Sasaki and all those other people... or some of them... so I don't count them as off limits. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I want to see all your reviews about speculations on what I'm up to and where this story might be headed. I love that type of review.**


	5. Reality

Stepping back from me and brushing her hair away from her face, Emiri smiled meekly at the floor. I had no idea how to react to what she just did, so I just stood there and stared dumbly. Where did that come from? Was she just making up for what she almost made Haruhi and Asakura do, or did it actually mean something more than that?

Eventually, I managed to shake my head to clear it again. I grabbed my head, steadying after such a dizzying move, and tried to make eye contact with Emiri. Unfortunately, eye contact was impossible so long as she was staring at the floor tiles. I reached out and touched her shoulder, causing her to look up. Our eyes met, as much as they can when she's blind. That was my chance.

"You want to try explaining what just happened?"

She smiled, still acting a bit shy, and proceeded to explain why she kissed me. That would be great, except I meant about the shared memory thing. I'll let it slide though, cause I do want to know why she kissed me.

She took a deep breath before explaining her move. "When... when we were all in high school, there was one time that you had gone missing. I went to the SOS Brigade for help... I told them that I was... your girlfriend. Of course, it wasn't true, but after that I sort of started wondering what it would be like to have a boyfriend. After a while I... realized that I was actually interested in... you."

I'll be the first to tell you that her explanation doesn't make much sense, but I gather what she's trying to tell me. The strangest part is that she went to the SOS Brigade. Well, that and the fact that every time I try to remember why I was missing all I see are images of a giant cricket. It's troublesome, and always has been, but I've been trying to ignore it. I'll come back to this kiss business when I'm ready for it.

But still... "Again, I meant about the shared memory thing."

She blushed heavily. "Oh, that... right."

Yes, Emiri. You still haven't explained that. "You want to maybe explain what you just showed me? Why you stopped it when you did and the way you did?"

She took another deep breath, this one deeper than the last, and started by making sure I wouldn't freak out. "Remember what I said. This doesn't change how I feel. I hope it doesn't change how you feel either."

I nodded, assuring her that I was here to listen and not to judge. "Yes, I remember. Now, uh... start at the beginning, maybe?"

She took my hand and held it tightly in both of her own, as if she didn't want me to run off. Her eyes, blind as they may have been, stared right into mine. "Myself, Ryoko, Yuki, and three others came to this planet almost twenty years ago. That was us at the beginning of the memory, looking down at this planet from space. We came here to observe and collect information on a very important individual. Her name is Haruhi Suzumiya."

"The six of us were artificial lifeforms. Humanoid interfaces constructed out of data by the Data Integration Thought Entity. It was the overmind, coordinating our actions for years. We were always capable of our own free thought, but to actively go against our programming was against our mission protocols. One by one, the others started doing just that. The first two were deleted, and the third was almost deleted. She escaped before we could delete her, and after that we set in place a self-imposed rule against permanent deletion."

"Ryoko suffered a serious glitch, causing her to attempt to... kill Kyon. We disabled her and removed her from the school. Some time later, Yuki suffered a similar glitch. What she did was... more severe. Thankfully, we were able to keep the Data Integration Thought Entity from deleting her itself. I was really the only one who never actually suffered a glitch."

"When high school ended we received orders to come here, so the three of us came to Canada. Here, we just waited. We have been waiting for Haruhi Suzumiya to find us for over thirteen years. One day, we woke up and realized that the Data Integration Thought Entity was gone. We don't know if it left, or if it was destroyed, or if it simply ceased to exist. It was just gone. Before it left, or possibly in the process of leaving, it altered us so that we would become normal human beings. It also left us with this ability to share memories by touch."

She turned away from me, but continued talking. "As a result of our bodies suddenly being completely human, we did encounter a few problems. A few years ago, my eyesight started fading. It went completely early last Summer. Ryoko has been getting sicker more often, and we've begun worrying about her. Yuki seems to be fine for now, but..."

She trailed off into silence. I quickly glanced toward the other room. I don't want Haruhi or Ryoko walking in on this. "So, you're… you're all aliens?"

She nodded. I can't be sure, but it looked like she wasn't sure if it had been a good idea to tell me all that. "That is an appropriate term for what we are."

I should probably be freaking out right now, or at least not believing her, and I would likely be doing both if it hadn't been for the shared memory. Instead I found myself smiling down at her. "I think… a lot of things just started making a lot more sense." Then a thought struck me. "Wait… Haruhi made her brigade back then so she could find aliens and time travelers, right?"

Emiri blinked, unsure where I was going with this. She did add something, however. "And espers."

"Whatever. So the three of you were all right there the whole time?" She nodded again. "Why didn't you tell her?"

She gave me a confused look. "Tell Haruhi Suzumiya of our true origin?" It was me nodding this time. She shook her head in response. "Haruhi Suzumiya was the source of a massive data explosion. That was the entity's reason for being interested in Earth. She possessed the incredible ability to manipulate data, though she was never aware of it. If she became aware, the entity feared another data explosion."

Now she's staring at me with that confused look, meanwhile I'm the one who has no idea what's going on. I scratched my head. "Okay, back up." She took a step backwards, and my brain slapped me. I moved on. "What do you mean by 'data explosion'?"

"An explosion of raw data; information in unprecedented quantities. The amount of data in the first explosion gave the Data Integration Thought Entity hopes that it could harness Haruhi Suzumiya's powers in order to achieve it's own auto-evolution. However, an explosion of data directed in the wrong direction could potentially have caused the entity great harm, possibly to the point of obliteration. Revealing ourselves as extra-terrestrials was listed among many possible causes of a future catastrophic data explosion, or possibly a data implosion."

If I were to ask what the difference was between a data explosion and a data implosion, I would probably regret it. I get what it generally means, but I have no clue what difference one would make compared to the other. One question still stuck in my mind, even as I grabbed my head to stop it from spinning.

"Were any of the other brigade members aware that Nagato was an alien?"

Emiri didn't respond. Instead, she turned toward the door. For a second I found myself fearing that Haruhi had walked in on us, but when I looked I was met with Nagato herself. The apparent alien lifeform that was once a member of Haruhi's brigade dedicated to finding exactly what was hiding in its ranks.

She opened her mouth, and I almost started feeling hopeful that she would answer for Emiri. That feeling jumped away when she actually spoke. "Don't call me that."

Don't… call her… that? What? Don't call her a brigade member, or don't call her an alien? I was about to ask her to clarify when she went ahead and did so without my asking.

"When I married Matthew, I took his family name." She looked down at some point on the floor behind me. "Nagato is not me anymore, so don't use it. Please, just call me Yuki."

Well, I didn't expect that. So her husband's name was Matthew, huh? I wonder if Haruhi would be willing to pay me for that information. Either way, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable calling her Yuki all the time. "So… what's your name now, then?"

She had turned to go back into the other room, but she looked back to me. She was slightly taken aback, either because it wasn't my business or she didn't expect me to care that much. She gave me the answer regardless. "Um… Benson." Then she left.

Benson? I have decided I will just call her Yuki. It's easier to say.

Asakura walked in next. She smiled warmly at us. "I took the liberty of setting up places for you and Haruhi to stay as long as you're here." She focused on Emiri. "It's getting late, Emiri. I should drive you home."

Emiri looked to me. "Why don't you tag along? We can talk a little longer."

After careful consideration that took all of half a second, I agreed. "Sure."

Asakura led the way back into the garage. I took Emiri's hand to help her avoid hitting anything. Once we were all in the car again, with me and Emiri in the back, Asakura started up the engine and pulled us out of the garage. A moment later we were out on the road, headed in the supposed direction of Emiri's home.

Despite what Emiri had said, no one actually said anything until we arrived at an old apartment building. I got out and helped Emiri to the door. "You need me to take you to your apartment?"

She shook her head. "No, I know the way." She stepped through the door and disappeared from sight.

I turned back to the car, hoping I would see her again tomorrow, and saw Asakura rolling her window down. She waved at me. "Get in the front seat. I want to ask you a question or two."

Seeing no real problem with complying, I walked around the front of the car and sat in the passenger seat. "Alright, what do you want to ask about?"

Asakura just turned the key in the ignition, shutting the engine off. We sat in silence for a few moments before she actually said anything. She looked over at me suddenly, whipping her her behind her. "You do like her, don't you?"

I'm going to go ahead and assume she means Emiri. If that is the case, then the answer is... "Yes."

Asakura smiled, but her face quickly turned more serious. "I'm warning you to be careful with her. If you hurt her in any way, I'll have to stomp some very important parts of your person." I nodded, causing her smile to briefly return. "She can be a little confusing at times, but she has her reasons."

I leaned on the door, keeping some distance from Asakura, and laughed at the comment. "Yeah, she showed me."

Asakura froze. Her eyes moved to me very slowly. "What did she tell you?"

I shrugged. "Well, everything, I think. It's okay, you can trust me. I won't tell Haruhi anything."

"So she told you everything... well then I have something I need to show you."

At that point, I was sort of expecting her to start the car up and drive somewhere. I don't know why I expected that, and in retrospect it was dumb of me to think that way. Instead of the vibration of an active car engine, all I felt was the white hot pain of Ryoko Asakura's fingernails digging into my shoulder. I reached up to try and pry her off, but she had her hand clamped on me like a bear trap. Suddenly, everything went black.

This better not become a regular occurrence.

* * *

I opened my eyes to see Yuki Nagato, or maybe Benson, standing over me, looking down at me with some slight annoyance. She was standing in an apartment door and I was sitting across the hall outside the apartment. She opened her mouth and spoke.

"Have you been there all night?"

The memory flashed, and I was on the balcony with Asakura again, watching Yuki chase down their fourth member. This time was different, however. It felt like someone was watching us this time. My eyes moved up to the sky above us. For a split second I thought I saw Asakura's face above us, watching us.

It flashed again. I found myself coughing into a chrome sink. Red blood came out of my mouth and splashed the silver reflective surface. In the obscured reflection I noticed that my hair was blue. I think I'm Asakura this time...

Another flash, and I think I'm Emiri again. How am I getting her memories from Asakura? I watched as high school sped past, all the while feeling like Asakura was watching my every move. Then I realized exactly what was going on. Asakura was looking at the memories Emiri had shown me, and in return I was getting to see some of her own memories. It was a trade.

Flash, and again, I'm Ryoko Asakura, or I'm seeing her memories. I'm sitting in a doctor's office. The doctor is standing in front of me, telling me something I really didn't want to know. This time I was aware the Asakura was intentionally keeping me from hearing what the doctor was saying. It's okay, I don't think I want to know anyway.

Everything goes white again, and I'm standing on that steel girder again, staring at that man again. He's just sitting there, enjoying his break. I think I know now where this is, and who this is. Asakura's watching, and I think she knows too. This is Matthew Benson, Yuki's late husband. This is moments before he dies...

How is that one of Emiri's memories?

* * *

I opened my eyes again, relieved to find I was back in my own body. Jumping between the bodies of two different people is weird enough. The fact that they're both women just makes it feel stranger. Interestingly enough, there was no pain in my shoulder. I looked over to Asakura to see how she was doing.

She was covered in sweat and shaking heavily. A few unrepeatable words escaped her mouth, followed by something more intelligent. "Why... how did you stop me from seeing the end of that memory?"

She thinks that was my fault? "Emiri stopped before I could see it. That was the end."

Asakura shook her head, then pounded her forehead against the steering wheel. Once she settled down, she turned back to me. "She knows what happened... she doesn't want me to find out. Now I know she was there, I might be able to figure out why."

A thought hit me, and I had to voice my concern. "You think she knows who did it?"

Asakura nodded. "And I think she's protecting them. Makes me wonder who it could be. Who would Emiri care about enough to protect them even after they killed Matthew?" As she said this, she looked to me, and I don't think I like what she's implying.

I put my hands up. "Hey, I've never been outside of Japan before. Don't look at me like that."

She sighed and looked away. "I know..." A few seconds later she started the car up again. "Anyway, we should get back before Yuki decides she really doesn't want Haruhi there."

As we headed back toward the auto shop, I asked Asakura a few questions I hadn't had answered yet. "What is it with Yuki, by the way? Did she tell you why she wasn't happy to see Haruhi?"

Asakura eyed me with a grin. "So it's Yuki now?"

I shrugged. "She told me not to call her Nagato, and Benson is harder to say."

She rolled her eyes, then focused back on the road. "Well, to answer your question, she hasn't told me right out but I think she blames Haruhi for everything that's happened to us in the past decade. Losing our connection to the Data Integration Thought Entity, Emiri's blindness, Matthew's death... it's all stuff she believes Haruhi could have prevented."

As far as I know, Haruhi can only create data explosions and implosions, and I still don't know what either thing actually entails. "How could she have prevented any of that?"

"Haruhi Suzumiya has the very unique ability to alter the universe at a whim... or rather, had."

First off, that's absolutely terrifying. The fact that I survived high school can only mean that she never hated me as much as she pretended to. Second, what do you mean 'had'? "So, she doesn't have that anymore?"

"No, I don't think she does. If she did, do you think she'd have lost her friends in the first place? Furthermore, I would be willing to bet that the others have all become normal humans like us. The espers have lost their powers, and the time travelers have likely returned to their own time."

Now she's telling me espers and time travelers are real too. Well, I guess if Haruhi has powers like she said, or had them, then it's quite likely. Doesn't help that I don't actually know what an esper is.

Another thought hit me. It was a stupid idea, and to be honest I was half making fun of Asakura at this point. "Hey, maybe the time travelers got stuck here. Ever think of that."

She cocked her head to the side. "Hmm... I suppose you're right. In fact, that would make more sense. Haruhi never saw hard evidence of anything, but she did know Mikuru Asahina. If time travelers ceased to exist the same way aliens did, then Mikuru will still be alive somewhere. She'll still remember traveling through time and coming from the future, but she won't be able to do it anymore."

Hold up. "Mikuru Asahina... was a time traveler?"

Asakura glanced at me. "I thought Emiri told you everything."

"Everything I knew about the subject."

She smirked. "Huh, well then... of course Mikuru was the time traveler. Who did you think it was? Miss Tsuruya? Maybe Kyon's little sister?"

Kyon had a sister? I did not know that. I was about to ask if there were any espers in the SOS Brigade when we arrived back at the auto shop. The sky had already grown dark so the small glowing dot just outside the front door was very visible, as was the figure holding it.

Seeing Asakura approaching, Yuki dropped the glowing object and stomped on it. She walked into the garage beside the car as Asakura parked and pulled the key out of the ignition.

Opening my door and getting out at the same time as Asakura, I noted that it was just the three of us. I turned to the two former aliens. "Here's a thought. What if Haruhi still has her powers? It would explain how she managed to find the three of you all together."

Yuki frowned. "No, I don't think so. She wants her characters, and to get them together the hero of the story must go and find all of them. If she had her powers, she would have found me and only me. Emiri and Ryoko are side characters to her. She wouldn't even have considered them unless they somehow contributed to her finding me."

I really have no idea what Yuki is talking about right now, but I don't want to get into it. Instead, I just followed Asakura through the front room and into the kitchen. There, we found Haruhi sitting on the counter and eating a sandwich. She smiled and waved the sandwich at us as we walked by.

Yuki shook her head in dismay. "If you really want to improve my mood, then you should think about growing up."

Her frown proved to be contagious, and soon spread to Haruhi as well. She finished her sandwich and went off to find the place Asakura had set up for her to stay. Our blunette hostess kindly showed me to the room I'd be staying in.

Before she stepped out, I thought of something I wanted cleared up for me. "Hey, Asakura... do you know how big the base of that space elevator is?"

She laughed. "I think it's around two kilometers from the outer wall to the center. Something like that." With that, she left.

Now I could settle down in the bed prepared for me with the knowledge that that thing was much bigger than I had thought... and that Emiri was an alien.


	6. Koizumi

I covered my face with my hand in order to block the sunlight from my eyes. After my sight had suitably adjusted to the sun, I put my hand down and looked out the open window. The sky was bright blue, barely a cloud in sight. I got up and got dressed, already figuring out what I needed to do today. Then there was a voice from behind me.

"If it keeps warming up at this rate, the snow will be all gone by April... if it's not already gone."

Walking to the window and looking out, I sighed and shook my head. "No, there's still a little left. I'd give it a day or two at the most."

I turned to see Emiri smiling up at me, her body covered in a morning dress. She brushed some hair back out of her face and got out of the bed. "I think it's a little concerning, how short the winter is getting. Don't you?"

I shook my head and stepped over to the small television that was set up in the corner, turning it on. "I don't see any reason to be distressed by it." I looked back at her and saw her frown. She was making a face that said something was bothering her ears.

I looked down at the television to see only static. That's… strange. I flipped through the one hundred and forty channels we got, only to find all but five had turned to static. All five remaining channels were being transmitted from a rather close location, and on top of that they were all coming through very poorly.

I slapped the top of the television, knowing full well that it wasn't the TV's fault. Under the normal sounds of people talking and the static crackling and fuzzing, I noticed another sound. It was a low-pitched whine, and it was starting to get to me. I turned the TV off after realizing that the sound was giving Emiri a headache.

She took a deep breath and turned to me. "Thank you. What do you think was making that noise?"

I just shrugged. "Maybe the signal was getting messed up by the sun. The news yesterday said something about solar activity."

"Record."

I looked at her. "Record?" Then I caught on and added the missing piece of the news report to my sentence. "Oh yeah, that's right. They said it was _record_ solar activity…"

Behind me, she was changing into her clothes for the day. "Ryoko wants us in by nine thirty. What time is it?"

I glanced at the clock and, seeing that it was a quarter of an hour after nine in the morning, started getting ready for work with a great emphasis on speed. We didn't have time to grab anything to eat before we left, but Yuki would most likely let us have something of hers so long as we didn't eat too much.

Emiri clapped her hands together, catching my attention. "Hey! What time is it?"

I gave her an innocent smile, knowing full well she couldn't see it. "Sorry. It's a quarter after nine."

"Meaning we should hurry up." She grabbed a red-tipped cane from the corner and moved to the door.

I nodded and stepped over to join her. "The bus will be out front in three or four minutes. I'll race you."

We laughed as we stepped out the door and walked down the hallway. We took the stairs down to the main floor and walked out the front door of the apartment building, heading across the street to the bus stop. She rested her head against my shoulder as we waited.

Looking around, I could see that the snow was almost gone. The sun was melting it all away. For the end of March, I noted that there wasn't much in the way of green anywhere. In fact, the only plants that seemed to have grown had already withered and died under the heat from the sun. I began to think that maybe the early thaw wasn't for the best.

Come to think of it, I was starting to feel a bit queasy in the heat. I was about to say something about it when Emiri started leaning more heavily on me. Coupled with my quickly increasing dizziness, I almost fell over. I tried to straighten her up some, but she simply collapsed onto me.

It was the heat. I could feel it pounding me as well. Why didn't she say anything? The bus had air conditioning. Once it came, we would be fine.

I waited for an hour before I realized the bus wasn't coming. By that time it was too late. I could hardly move, and Emiri was already gone. The few people I could see had fainted the same as her. I had no way of knowing if they were still alive.

Everything went black, and I heard a voice.

_"Haruhi Suzumiya is looking for me. Tell her that she can find me in Paris."_

* * *

I shot out of bed, panting heavily and covered in cold sweat, and my head hit something green. Falling back into my bed, I slapped my hand to my forehead. I opened my eyes eventually to see Emiri rubbing her head in much the same way. Did I just hit my head on her head? What's she doing in my room?

I jumped up and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

She laughed. "Yes, I'll be fine. I should have known better than to stick my face so close to someone who was having a nightmare."

Oh yes, the dream. Was it a nightmare? The image of Emiri limp in my arms flashed through my mind, reminding me that it was indeed a nightmare. "Okay... why were you in my room to begin with?"

She smiled nervously. "You slept in past noon. Haruhi said it was probably just jet lag, but then we heard you yelling. They didn't know if you were wearing anything, so they sent me in. Um... what were you dreaming about."

Among other things, waking up in the same bed as you. Can't say that, can I? Especially if she thinks the whole thing was a terrible nightmare. That could ruin a relationship.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. "Why do you want to know?"

She blushed. "You said my name a few times..."

Uh... oops.

"And you said Haruhi's name once too..." She shook her head and handed me an envelope. "Forget I asked. Uh... here. This came in my mail box this morning. Ryoko says it has your name on it."

I took the envelope and, sure enough, it was addressed to me. Who would know they could reach me through Emiri? I was about to open it to find out when my phone started ringing. I picked it up and put it to my ear, holding it in place with my shoulder so I could open the envelope at the same time.

The voice on the other end was that of a smooth and calm young man. To be honest, it was also a bit creepy. "Did you get my letter?"

This whole situation is a bit awkward, but I'll humor the guy. "If it's the one I'm holding, then I did."

"Good. It includes a map of the city. You're going to need it when you get there."

"When I get where?" I finally managed to pry the envelope open and pull out a folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, I confirmed that it was a map. "What city is this?"

"Which do you think it is? Paris, of course. I told you." When does he think he told me? "In your dream last night." That got me. Did he just read my mind over the phone? "Yes, as a matter of fact, that's exactly what I did."

This has got to stop. "How did you do that? How are you doing that?"

"Simple. I'm an esper. So, can you bring Miss Suzumiya to Paris for me?"

I decided to stop thinking and just answer. "Uh, yeah. I think I can. Where are you right now?"

"Why, I'm in Paris. Don't worry about finding me. As soon as you arrive, my company will contact you and bring you both to me."

"Wait. You can read my mind from Paris?"

He gave a light chuckle, another word that is and always will be ridiculous. "Yes, but only so long as we're connected by phone."

Right. Of course. "Then how did you send me that... dream?"

"Oh, I planted that when we were still in school together. I admit, it would have seemed out of place had I not lived long enough to explain it to you, but I had been reassured that I would still be around."

"So, hold on. You're an esper, but you still have your powers?"

"Still have them? Yes, but they have grown quite a bit. I'd be glad to explain further once you arrive. Just tell Miss Suzumiya that Itsuki Koizumi called. I'll see you there."

Then he hung up, leaving me wondering how much of that to actually believe. He planted that dream in my head thirteen, maybe fourteen, years ago. How did he know I'd be thinking about being with Emiri Kimidori? More importantly, how did he know she would be blind? He leaves me with no choice but to believe him, which I naturally hate.

I made sure I was wearing proper clothing, then I stepped out into the hallway. I immediately had to dodge Asakura, who then ducked into a room and started coughing rather loudly. I went to check on her, only to find her bent over the bathroom sink with strands of red dripping from her mouth.

I looked down the hall both ways. Once I knew there was nobody near, I determined to press for answers. "This, whatever it is, is not okay. What's really wrong?"

She glared at me, taking a cloth and wiping the blood from her mouth. "I'm sick. That's all there really is. I'll be fine."

"Will you really?"

She grimaced and pushed past me. "For a few more months... don't tell anyone."

Ignoring whatever that could end up meaning, I followed her into the kitchen where everyone else was waiting. Emiri was seated at the table, happily eating a sandwich. Haruhi was leaning on the counter, eating a sandwich of her own while Yuki was whittling a stick with a rather disturbingly large knife. I was about to say something when I realized Haruhi was already talking to Yuki.

"Do you even wonder where the rest of the brigade went?"

Yuki missed a slice at her stick, gouging a chunk out of the wooden table instead. "...not really."

"Not even Mikuru?"

I realized then what Haruhi was trying to figure out, but it seemed to slip past everyone else. Yuki just frowned. "Really not."

Haruhi took another bight out of her sandwich, talking around the mouth full. "Why not? What's wrong with Mikuru?"

Yuki pounded the table, startling Emiri into dropping her sandwich, and practically shouted at Haruhi. "What's wrong with Mikuru!? You don't even know all the things she lied to you about! She was a worthless, spineless little-" I'll let you fill in the blank.

Haruhi set her sandwich aside. "Mikuru was essential to bringing clients to the brigade. What did you ever do?"

Yuki threw the stick at Haruhi, but it just bounced harmlessly off her shoulder. "More than you know! More than you could ever know!"

Asakura took a few steps away from the two, watching Yuki carefully. "Yuki... put down the knife."

Haruhi obviously didn't hear her, as she continued to antagonize an armed woman who stood more than half a foot taller than her. "You never did anything! I know I gave Kyon a lot of crap for it, but you were the one who never helped!"

I'm not so sure my mind was even capable of keeping up with what happened next, but I am sure that it didn't. One moment, they were standing opposite each other and Haruhi had just yelled something at Yuki. The next moment Yuki had her hand in the air, swinging her knife at Haruhi. It took my mind a few moments to register that Yuki wasn't finishing her swing, and a few more to realize it wasn't voluntary.

Suddenly, Asakura was between the two of them, her hand around the blade of the knife. Yuki let go of the handle and staggered back, as if she had move to attack Haruhi without even knowing it. Asakura dropped the knife and fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably. Haruhi had frozen, her eyes moving from Asakura to Yuki and back again.

For some reason, it seemed like I was the only one that could move. I grabbed a cloth from the counter and, kneeling in front of Asakura, I wrapped it around her hand to cover the large gash and hopefully stop some of the blood flow.

I looked over my shoulder at Yuki. "Can you drive?"

Her eyes snapped over to me. "W-what?"

"We need to get her to a hospital. Can you drive?"

"Oh! Right, uh, yes!" She hurried into the front room, then to the garage. Emiri stood up and moved to follow her.

I hoisted Asakura up and walked her out to the car as quickly as I could. I briefly turned to Haruhi. "Stay here, okay?"

She just nodded in response. I carried Asakura to the car and loaded her in the back seat, resting her head on Emiri's lap, then got in the passenger seat. Yuki already had the motor running, but instead of driving away she turned back to Asakura.

"I'm sorry."

Asakura shook her head. "I just kept you from doing something you'd regret. You did the same for me. Remember?"

Yuki turned away and nodded. "I'm still sorry."

The car pulled out onto the road, and we were on the way to the hospital. No one said a word. Emiri quietly fussed over Asakura. Yuki tried to keep her eyes clear while she was driving. I tried in vain to work out why Yuki overreacted like that. I decided that I would ask her about it when we were sure Asakura was going to be fine.

When we pulled into the hospital parking lot, there were people standing out front waiting for her. Had Haruhi called ahead of us to tell them we were coming? We didn't waste time asking. We just handed Asakura over to them and let the professionals take over.

They wouldn't let us follow them as they carted her off into the hospital, but one of them stayed behind to explain why they were waiting. "We got a call just a few minutes ago. The police will be here in a few moments to take the weapon. The caller requested that it be destroyed, so we called the appropriate authorities."

Yuki stepped forward. "Yes, good. I want to get rid of it as soon as possible."

He nodded and went back into the hospital. I don't think he knew how the accident happened, but I was beginning to think Yuki had called instead of Haruhi. I was about to ask, but was cut off when a police car pulled up. A uniformed officer stepped out. Yuki handed him the weapon and talked to him for a bit. I don't know what she said. I was too distracted by Emiri, who had started clinging to my arm.

I was drawn back to reality when Yuki got into the police car. It drove off with her in the back, and I can only assume that she told him what happened. The car disappeared around a corner and we were left alone, just me and Emiri.

"What just happened?"

I looked down at Emiri. She was staring up at me blindly, asking where Yuki had disappeared to. I had no answer to give. No words came to my mouth. So we just stood there in the hospital parking lot. An hour might have passed before something happened, but eventually someone stopped their car in front of us. I hardly noticed until they spoke to us.

"You two look like you could use a lift."

I looked up and, lo and behold, there was a beautiful young redheaded woman. She was wearing a tight pair of jeans and a black, low-necked, sleeveless shirt. She smiled pleasantly at us from the front seat of a hot red convertible, with a little tea leaf decoration swinging from the top of the windshield.

Her smile never wavered. "Can I give you a ride somewhere?"

Emiri beat me to a response, but it's my own fault for spending too much time staring at the woman's rather sizable... attributes. Emiri put her hands on the car door. "Yes, if you wouldn't mind. Are you headed towards the airport?"

She just smiled wider. "I could make a detour. You leaving the country?"

Emiri shook her head. "No. There's an auto shop near the airport. We need to get back there."

"Oh, I know that place. Hop in. It shouldn't be a problem, really."

And so we were on our way, me and Emiri in the back seat of a brightly colored car, some stranger that was starting to feel eerily familiar chatting away at us from the driver's seat. Only yesterday, I was fixing lights and stuff halfway around the world. Now I'm wondering if I should have left a message on my answering machine telling people that I would not be available ever again because I'd been pulled into an adventure by a girl who had humiliated me in high school. Maybe that would have been too presumptuous...

Our driver casually laughed at something she had said, and I found myself wondering what the chances were that this might actually be Mikuru Asahina. She definitely looks like I would expect her to after thirteen years, but she's acting so differently from what I remember. Maybe I'm being too presumptuous. What are the chances, really?

She looked into the rear view mirror and our eyes met. She laughed some more before speaking. "Having trouble recognizing me, are you?"

Beside me, Emiri straightened up. "Who are you?"

She grinned triumphantly. "I'm an old friend. Let me remind you of someone I work with who's a bit fresher in your memories. Itsuki Koizumi?"

Emiri gasped, which only served to remind me that I hadn't told anyone about Koizumi's call yet. I sighed. "Okay, how much does he want Haruhi to go to Paris? Is it necessary that we go right now?"

"Oh, well, you don't have to go right this minute, but it's megas important that you go soon." She flinched, as if she had given herself away. I didn't catch anything, but apparently Emiri did.

Emiri scrunched her face in irritation. "Oh, you." Oh, who? Who is it? Emiri looked over to me as if sensing how lost I was. "It's Miss Tsuruya."

The person seated in front of us burst out laughing uncontrollably. "Well, you could just call me by my first name."

I don't think I ever knew her first name. I don't think Emiri did either, judging by the look on her face. "Yeah, can we just call you Tsuruya?"

She seemed disappointed, but agreed anyway. "Well, alright, but Haruhi can't know I'm here yet. She's not supposed to meet me until we're all in Paris. That's when Itsuki plans on telling her everything!"

Emiri grabbed Tsuruya's seat and pulled herself forward. "You can't be serious! You're going to tell her everything? Even after all this time, the result could be disastrous! We don't know how much of Haruhi's power is still there!"

She smiled again. "You don't, that's true. But Itsuki does. While the Data Thought-thingy left you all alone, other people kept their abilities. Itsuki is still an esper, and Mikuru is still an adorable time traveler. I mean, all the other espers lost their powers, but Itsuki's seem to just be getting stronger and stronger. Not everyone's had such bad luck, you know."

Emiri eased back down into her seat, a look on her face that told me she wanted to keep them from telling Haruhi. "How can he, even if he's got all his esper powers, see the future?"

"That's something you'll have to ask him." She stuck her tongue out at Emiri, making me wonder if she was aware that Emiri was blind. "For now, you just get out of my car and tell Haruhi that Itsuki Koizumi is waiting for her in Paris. Don't mention me or anything else. We'll contact you when you get there."

We got out and she drove away, leaving us wondering how we were going to tell Haruhi that Koizumi was in Paris, Tsuruya was _here_, and Yuki was in prison.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Did you like the dream? Compliments of Koizumi. Also, when did Tsuruya get here? Why is her hair a different color? When did she learn about everything?

And what are we gonna do about Yuki?


	7. Kuyou

I'm standing here in front of the auto shop, staring in through the front window, wondering what I should do. I need to go in and tell Haruhi that Itsuki Koizumi wants to meet her, but if she sees me and Emiri she'll ask where Yuki is. Then I'll have to tell her that Yuki turned herself in to the police. Of course, then Haruhi will ask me why, and I just don't know the answer to that.

To further compound our problems, our hostess is in the hospital. I don't know if we should really leave while Asakura's not even here, not to mention Yuki. Haruhi's not going to want to leave so long as Yuki doesn't want to come along, and definitely not while she's in prison.

Standing beside me, staring up at me with blind green eyes, is Emiri Kimidori. She's in the same situation I am right now, with the exception of her actually knowing what's going on. I mean, I get that Haruhi wants her brigade back, and I understand that the brigade members are all aliens and time travelers and espers, but there's more going on that I don't think I'll ever understand.

For example, when Emiri reached up and put her hand on my cheek, it confused the heck out of me. Is she going to kiss me again?

By now, you'd think I'd have learned.

"I want to show you something."

I started preparing myself for another sequence of shared memories, faintly hoping that something would explain the previous ones she's shown me. Really, the only time I figured out what one meant was when Asakura was probing my mind to find out what Emiri had shown me. Emiri has had to explain the rest to me.

I closed my eyes, thinking I was as ready as I would ever be. Then her hand left my face. I opened my eyes to see her running towards the auto shop. She ran around the building, so I figured she wanted to show me something in the back. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not a shared memory this time.

I followed her around to the back of the building. I hadn't been back there yet, so I was surprised to find that it was in fact a used car lot. Granted, all the cars were covered with snow except a few. One of the clean cars had an adorable little Emiri sitting on it, leaning back and facing up at the sky.

I called over to her. "Shouldn't we be going in and talking to Haruhi?"

She just patted the hood of the car she was sitting on. "Yuki spends most of her time back here taking care of these cars, you know."

I work with electronics and computers. Stuff like that. Cars aren't exactly my area, so I hardly care for them. Even so, I think it might maybe get on my nerves a bit if all three of these girls know too much about cars when I know so little. It could be just a little embarrassing.

Looking around at the cars, I could tell one thing about them for sure. "These are all pretty old, aren't they?"

She smiled. "We wouldn't be able to afford a newer car. Yuki fixes them often enough, but she doesn't really care for them. Ryoko is determined to use the ones we've got until they don't work anymore anyway."

"Have you tried selling any of them?"

She shook her head. "Most of them, Yuki bought herself. She would rather not sell them and, well, we can't really sell something that belongs to her."

Not really having anything else to say, I regret that I may have let the conversation stagnate at that point. I stood in silence for a minute or two, just watching her, before something broke the calm.

Haruhi must have just noticed us. She opened the back door and poked her head out. "Hey, when did you guys get back?" She glanced around a bit before asking another question. "Where's Yuki?"

Emiri frowned, but it looked like she was going to handle the explanation so I decided to let her. "Haruhi... Yuki called the police. She explained everything to them and turned herself in."

Haruhi stepped out all the way, and I could see the shock covering her face. "What? Why would she do that?"

Emiri slid herself off the hood of the car and stood to face Haruhi. "She attacked you with a lethal weapon. If Asakura hadn't stepped in the way, you could be in her place. Maybe worse."

"It doesn't matter! She's a member of my brigade! I have to go get her back!" She turned and went back inside, planning to do what? God knows. I don't.

I looked back to Emiri, who had walked closer to me. "Is she going to try and bust Yuki out?"

The green-haired woman shrugged. "She won't need to. Tsuruya's here, remember? I have a feeling she's here for a reason other than being a third message from Itsuki Koizumi."

I did the counting in my head. "Fourth. He sent me a dream before the letter and the phone call."

She blinked. "Oh, yes... I remember you mentioned that while you were on the phone." She looked up at me, almost fooling me into thinking she actually could see. "What did happen in that dream?"

Thinking back on it, I'm starting to wonder that exact same thing. I shook my head. "A lot happened, but I'm not really sure how to describe it. I think it was supposed to be the future, but... is that possible?"

Emiri sighed. "It would appear that Itsuki Koizumi has somehow come across the ability to know the future. It could be his esper powers, but I think it is more likely due to an allegiance with a time traveler. Possibly Mikuru Asahina, which would explain why Miss Tsuruya is working for him."

Yeah, speaking of Tsuruya... "What is she, anyway? Tsuruya. Is she an esper or time traveler?"

"No. As far as any of us ever knew, she was always a normal Human being." She motioned to the door. "You should go and tell Haruhi about Koizumi now. It will keep her mind off of Yuki for a while."

I nodded and headed to the door. "You gonna come and back me up?"

Emiri just smiled. "No, she'll believe you. I'm actually quite curious as to how it happened, but she seems to be clinging to you in much the same way she did with Kyon."

I stopped just before opening the door and turned back to her. "Yeah, why is that?"

"I honestly don't know. By all appearances, you would be completely insignificant to her. I'm sure you realized that back in high school, but she doesn't care much for normal people. It is natural for her to seek out the supernatural, so maybe there is more to you than we have suspected..."

Not to my knowledge, at least, but I'll humor her. "Was there more to Kyon than you suspected?"

She frowned. "Unfortunately, we never managed to determine why he had the effect on Haruhi Suzumiya that he did. Our best guess revolved around his being the John Smith that she met when she was thirteen, but she never identified him." She paused for a moment, then blushed lightly. "After you're done talking to Haruhi, could you come back out here? I believe there were a few more personal questions you wanted to ask me."

You got me. Yes, I do want to ask you a few questions. Some are personal, some not so much. I just shrugged. "Sure. Give me five minutes."

With that, I opened the door and went inside. As expected, Haruhi was running around getting ready to go out. At the speed she was moving, I estimated that I had twenty seconds to get her attention before she was gone. I tried standing in her way, but she zipped around me without a moment's hesitation.

Turning to follow her, I realized she was heading for the front door. I called out just in time to stop her. "Haruhi!"

She turned briefly. "Not right now! I have to go get Yuki!"

"You don't even know where the police station is." She blanched. I continued. "Besides, there's something else I need to tell you."

She sighed in defeat. "Alright. What is it?"

How do I put this so that she doesn't explode with excitement? "I got... contacted by Itsuki Koizumi."

Her eyes went wide. "Koizumi?! How'd he... where is he?!"

"He's in Paris. He called and told me that he wanted to meet you."

Surprisingly, she suddenly sobered up. "Oh, but I can't go without Yuki..."

"Emiri seems to think she'll be back pretty soon, so..."

She stopped me. "Wait... there's a Paris in Ontario."

What? Since when? Ontario is the part of Canada we're in right now, right? Whatever... "I think he meant France, Haruhi."

She threw her hands in the air. "How do you know? What if we go all the way there only to find out that he meant the Paris that's right here in Canada?"

Fair enough... wait, I think I know how to find out. Pretty simple, actually. "I can find out. He mailed me a map of the city. It should be easy enough to figure out if it's France or Canada."

I went into the room where I was staying and grabbed the folded map, bringing it out to Haruhi and opening it up. She looked at it and smiled, pointing to a specific spot. "It says Eiffel Tower. I'm pretty sure there isn't one of those in Canada." She punched the air. "I'm going to France! The SOS Brigade is coming together at last!"

I handed her the map. "You'll probably need this more than me. Anyway, I just thought I should let you know. Emiri's waiting out back for..."

Haruhi looked at me mischievously. "Is she now?" I stepped right on that land mine, didn't I? She grinned at me, and it was starting to make me uncomfortable.

I held up a hand, telling her not to go any further with this. "Let's just get this over with. Yes, Haruhi, I'm trying to get together with Emiri. Don't make a big deal over it, just leave it be. Please."

She frowned and crossed her arms. "Well, fine. But only because you asked. I won't say a word."

I knew it! She can abide by other people's wishes. "Thank you, Haruhi." She didn't answer, so I just turned and went back outside.

Out back, I found Emiri sitting on the hood of the same car again. She sat up when she heard me close the door. "Now all we have to do is figure out how we're going to keep him from telling her everything."

I put my hands in my pockets and stared at the ground. "Well, at least she's determined to wait for Yuki before she goes."

"That gives us a little time." She slid off the hood and walked over to me. "You have a few questions for me?"

I looked up at her and smiled. She must have sensed it somehow, as she smiled back. Time for questions, I take it. "Okay, let's start with this one. What happens if Koizumi tells Haruhi everything, and it turns out that Haruhi doesn't actually have her powers?"

Emiri laughed, a cute sound, and tapped her nose with her finger. "That's simple. If she really doesn't have any powers, then it will do nothing more than give her everything she's been looking for since she was a child. She'll have all the aliens, time travelers, and espers that she's always wanted to meet. I have to admit, I sort of wish we could tell her. I would do it in a heartbeat if only we knew for sure her powers were gone."

"I see..." Do I really? Whatever. "Next question. Didn't Miss Tsuruya's hair used to be green?"

She just nodded. "Yes it did." She kept a straight face for a good fifteen seconds before bursting out laughing.

"So, did she dye it, or was it dyed before? Basically I'm asking what her real hair color is."

Emiri shrugged. "I don't know. For all I know, she doesn't even remember."

Business question is out of the way. Silly question is also done. Next up is the romantic question. "Alright then, so... you and me...?" I think I'll leave it at that.

Her cheeks turned a bright red. "Ah... I, uh..." I reached out and took her hand in mine, making her turn even redder. She smiled nervously. "Well... um, I think... I'll say yes." She giggled girlishly, sending my instruments designed for cuteness detection far past the red zone.

This is really the last thing I want to say right now, but I have to. "I need you to tell me one more thing."

She was standing really close to me, staring up into my face. I have a feeling she's really going to hate this. She doesn't even know it's coming yet. "What's that?"

"Who killed Yuki's husband?" Her smile disappeared. She turned away from me and drifted a few steps, all previous happiness suddenly drained from her body. "I know you know who did it. That last memory you showed me. That was him."

"How would you know?"

Her voice had gone bitter. I'm sorry, Emiri, but if I'm going to trust you, then you need to trust me. I need to know why you're protecting this person. "Asakura recognized him."

"She looked into the memories I shared with you..."

Now she's starting to sound angry. I can't tell if she's angry at me or Asakura. "Look, she wants to know who did it just as much as I do. She just cares about Yuki. I just want to know I can trust you."

She spun around to look at me. There were tears in her eyes. "We were almost past this. We didn't need to go back to it. Yuki was better off with it behind her." She sniffed back the tears, and seemed to give in. "You can't tell her any of this. Yuki can't know."

I really would rather not do this, but I know a secret that shouldn't be kept a secret. "When Yuki gets back, I'm telling her that you know who did it. She deserves to know."

"Why would you..."

"I guess... because I believe that nothing should get in the way of the right thing to do."

She wiped her hand across her face, getting rid of as much of the tears as she could. "Nothing... not even me?"

Yuki is hurting, and I see something that might help her. If I can do it, then I will. That's all there is to it, isn't it? "I'm sorry."

She just collapsed onto her knees and buried her face in her hands. I knelt down in front of her. I didn't touch her. I didn't know how she might react to that. I just waited. By the time she spoke again, I realized it was starting to get dark. Was it really that late?

She peeked out from behind her hands. After a moment, she wiped her eyes and began to explain. "It... I, uh... a friend of mine... she fell in love with a man. He wasn't a good man... and he mistreated her. I told her to leave him. I told her over and over again, but she wouldn't listen. One day... I went to where he worked... and I killed him."

...

What? I misheard that, right? She didn't just say what I thought she said. She couldn't have. This is Emiri Kimidori we're talking about. The cute blind woman with green hair. She... she's an angel, for crying out loud. You can't expect me to believe what she just said...

"Please understand... I was only concerned for her... my friend... what I did was to protect her."

I think I do understand. Maybe not everything, but something else just clicked. "In the tattoo parlor... you were telling her that he was dead." Emiri nodded. "And you let her think it was someone else." She nodded again. "Then who did you let her go and take it out on?"

She shook her head. "I should have just told her right out, I know, but-"

"Now, wait a second." I wish I had a good way to confirm it, but I just thought of something else. The memory on the space elevator, with Matthew Benson. I remember looking down and seeing the city far below me. What I don't remember is that image being blurry. It's... not her memory. But I think I know whose it is. Emiri... she's really good at making it sound like it's her fault when it's not. "Who was it in the tattoo parlor? It wasn't Yuki. That person's the one who killed Yuki's husband, isn't she?"

"Don't..."

"I do understand, Emiri. You were just concerned for your friend. She was in danger, so you killed that man. Then she went and killed Yuki's husband. She's one of the only people you'd kill to protect, isn't she?"

Emiri leaned forward to cry into my shoulder. I let her. She deserves a little sympathy, doesn't she? She came to Earth with five others, and was forced to delete two of them. I can understand that she'd be willing to do just about anything to protect the other three, especially once they all became Human.

Emiri was sobbing, but I heard the words under it. "It was my fault... I'm sorry... I only wanted to keep you all safe..."

Suddenly sensing that there was someone standing behind me, I turned around with all the bad answers going through my head. It was Asakura, and given the circumstances, I think that was the best possibility. Haruhi would have thrown all kinds of fits and maybe destroyed the world, and Yuki would have probably killed someone.

Asakura just stood there. She had a bandage wrapped around her hand, and I imagine she might have stitches. She also looked a bit pale. I don't know if that was from her injury or from what she just heard. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was lost for words.

She eventually managed to speak. "I didn't know... you were just protecting her. I didn't know she was still alive." Her eyes lit up as if she had realized something. "We can't tell Yuki."

I nodded. "Yeah... you're right. I don't like it, but we can't tell her any of this. I think it's safe to say that someone's life depends on it." I lifted Emiri up, hoping for some form of confirmation from her.

Asakura answered for her. "I see it pretty much the same way Emiri does, I think. There's not many things she wouldn't do to protect the rest of us. I kept Yuki from making a big mistake already today. She did the same for me a long time ago, but I didn't realize that what I was trying to do was wrong until years later. I think Yuki realized it almost immediately."

A little off topic, but there's a question tingling at the back of my brain. "How did you get back here?"

Asakura looked up at me. "Oh, Yuki drove the car back. I told them I wasn't going to press charges, and someone payed the bail, so they let her go. You guys left the car at the hospital, so she stayed with me until the doctor said I was okay to leave, and then she drove us home. She's inside with Haruhi right now, apologizing over and over again."

"Shouldn't she be apologizing to you?"

Asakura grimaced. "She did. All the way home."

I stood up, hauling Emiri off her knees and supporting her with my arms. "She told you that Koizumi called, right?"

Asakura sighed. "Yes, she did. Between the two of them, there is no chance of quiet in there for a while. On the bright side, I don't think there will be any more attempted murder, so we can all rest a bit easier."

I looked over to Emiri, who was still hanging her head. "We should go in. Are you going to be okay?"

She sniffled a few times before slowly nodding. She didn't say anything, so I motioned for Asakura to go in ahead of us. She went in, leaving us alone again. I nudged Emiri carefully, trying to get her to respond to me with words.

She eventually came around. "I still killed someone... and Matthew is dead because of it. I might as well have done it myself."

I turned her around, letting her stand on her own but taking her hands. "It's not your fault what other people do." Before she could answer, I kissed her.

After the kiss, she smiled again. "I... I should... call Kuyou... and tell her that we're going to Paris. She'll want to come too. She is one of us, after all."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Raise you're hand if you saw all that coming. (my hands are down)


	8. Ryoko

The Sky Canopy Dominion. What is it? If you ask Emiri, apparently, it's entirely fictitious. It was imagined up to be a fake rival to the Data Integration Thought Entity. Who made it up, and why? The Data Integration Thought Entity made it up. Emiri was in charge of keeping everyone from knowing it didn't exist, and as such she is the one who named it.

This is what Emiri was explaining to me as we walked to meet Kuyou Suou. We didn't tell Yuki, Haruhi, or Asakura where we were going because, according to Emiri, they wouldn't understand. It seems that they had all been convinced that Kuyou was someone else, an alien created by a separate entity. Emiri took some fairly drastic steps to ensure they forgot who she was.

Well, of course, Haruhi just thinks Kuyou was a Human. Yuki and Asakura, however, had their memories altered. They remembered their fourth team member, but their memory of her was disassociated with the name Kuyou Suou. A remarkable trick on Emiri's part, if you ask me, considering she managed to get permission from the Data Integration Thought Entity to alter her teammates' memories.

Although, it makes me wonder if she ever changed my memories.

We met her halfway between the auto shop and wherever she lived, and I discovered that she either couldn't or simply didn't talk. She used sign language, which I couldn't understand in the slightest. She put her hands in Emiri's when she signed whatever she was saying, so I figured Emiri could understand that by feeling it.

Whatever they said to each other, Emiri managed to communicate to Kuyou a plan that she would reveal to me later. We went our separate ways, and the next morning saw Haruhi, Yuki, Asakura, Emiri, and myself getting on a plane destined for Paris. What the others didn't know was that Kuyou had also boarded the plane. She was sitting five rows directly behind Asakura, and no one was the wiser.

Now I'm sitting on a plane again, gripping my seat for dear life again. The worst part of them all is that the data interface girls all seem to be panicking too. I've got one on either side of me, finger nails digging into both my arms. Haruhi's sitting across the isle from us and is enjoying every moment far too much. Right beside her is Yuki, and the poor girl has turned pale as… snow.

Asakura has latched onto everything she can in every way she can, and is whimpering in sheer terror as the plane takes off. Emiri has her arms wrapped tightly around me and her face pressed firmly into my side. A quick glance behind us, and I can tell by the way her eyes were widening that Kuyou is at least as scared as me.

Not that I doubt any of them have been on a plane before. Emiri said they took a plane when they all moved to Canada, but I don't think she realized that they didn't have a problem then because they were still data interfaces. They're just Human girls now, and air travel seems to have caught them by surprise. This really doesn't help me get over my fear of flying, knowing that they are aware of pretty much everything that could go wrong.

Beside me, Asakura grumbled unhappily as the in-flight movie started. She turned to me. "Are they doing this on purpose?"

I managed to look at her, seeing as we had finally leveled off and the trip was smoother from here. "Doing what?"

She motioned to the movie. I didn't recognize it, and seeing this she elaborated. "Die Hard 2. Terrorists take over an airport. Airplanes explode a lot."

She said that in Japanese, which was probably a good idea. Most of the people on the plane probably wouldn't understand what she said. She was just being careful. I'm sure you can understand not wanting to be heard saying "terrorist" on a commercial flight.

Emiri caught it, though, and looked up at me. She really does look like she can see me sometimes, but I know she can't. When she spoke, I realized she was talking to Asakura. "They're playing that on an airplane? Why would they do that?"

Asakura suddenly grinned mischievously at me, then addressed Emiri. "Don't you worry, Emiri. You just snuggle with your man, you hear? You don't have to watch the movie."

Emiri leaned further into me with her face reddening. I patted her head gently and glanced over at the offending party. "Asakura, don't tease her."

She frowned in response. "I was serious when I asked you to just call me by my first name. You've done it for everyone else, so why not me?"

Where do I start? "Yuki's new last name feels weird. I'm pretty sure Haruhi threatened me into it. As for Emiri..." I looked down at the woman in question. She pressed her face into my side even harder. I looked back up to Asakura. "I think it's safe to say we're on a legitimate first name basis."

Asakura shook her head. "...you." She started that comment with a word that I'll leave up to your imagination.

I wasn't planning on responding to her anyway, but I was distracted by Emiri nudging me with her face. Asakura can sit and wait. I've got a green-haired beauty to take care of. ...What is she doing?

Seriously, she's rubbing her face against my ribs. I can't possibly imagine the point to this or what could be going through her head right now. It's awkward, somewhat embarrassing, and it's starting to get me excited in all the wrong ways. Stop it. Stop it, it's starting to tickle.

She must have noticed my discomfort, as she pulled away and sat back against her chair. She brushed her bangs out of her face and blushed. "Sorry..."

No your not. You were enjoying that. I was about to tell her I was fine with her acting like that, because it's so darn cute, when I thought of something else. I turned back to the blunette on my other side. "Hey, Asakura..." She just repeated her last words again. I ignored it and asked my question. "Are you sure you should be flying in your condition?"

She shot me a glare that could have launched me out the window of the plane. "Don't say another word about it. You don't know anything about it, so just leave it alone."

"I'm serious, Asakura. Will you really be alright?"

She looked like she was about to throttle me, but Haruhi interrupted just in time. "Ryoko, are you pregnant?"

Asakura turned to look at Haruhi, and I can only imagine what her face looked like. I know Yuki was trying desperately to hold it in, and I could hear a muffled giggle from Emiri. Asakura was trying her best not to scream at Haruhi, just barely succeeding.

"I am not pregnant!"

I heard Emiri whisper over to her. "People are starting to stare, Ryoko."

She shot back. "No one's staring."

Emiri nodded. "I am."

Sure enough, when we looked, Emiri was staring straight at Asakura. She can't see anything, but she really looks like she can sometimes. Her stare can even be described as downright unsettling, and I pity Asakura for being on the receiving end. Emiri just smiled kindly, making it even creepier.

Asakura just shrugged. "Whatever. I'm not pregnant, so just leave it alone."

This is going to catch up to you eventually, Asakura. I don't know what's wrong, but I do know you're not going to be able to ignore it forever. For now, I'll respect your wishes and shut up, but we are going to deal with this one way or another.

Time passed, and Emiri fell asleep on my shoulder. Looking over, I saw that Yuki and Haruhi had nodded off and were leaning into each other. Asakura also fell asleep, after spending the better part of an hour trying to open a packet of peanuts. I found myself debating whether or not to risk waking Asakura by shoving her off my shoulder.

Eventually, I gave up and just tried to get some rest for myself. I woke up when the plane landed on the runway, and someone's head landed in my lap. I'll give you a hint; it wasn't Emiri. No, Emiri's head landed on top of Asakura's with a solid knocking sound. Asakura woke up, followed closely by Emiri, and the former started panicking and trying to get out from under the latter. A lesser man would probably be enjoying himself, but I hurried to help both of them up. All three of us were thoroughly embarrassed, and Asakura was rubbing the back of her head and rattling off more swear words than I know.

A quick glance told me that something similar had happened to Yuki and Haruhi, but only the lavender-haired woman was embarrassed. I checked over my shoulder to see that Kuyou had... apparently not moved at all since I last looked. Is she still having those glitches Emiri mentioned? Would something like that have come with her when she was changed into a Human?

Over the course of the next hour, we found ourselves wandering around the airport terminal. Haruhi was leading us around aimlessly, with Yuki and Asakura following close behind her. I brought up the rear, holding hands with Emiri so that she wouldn't get left behind. Every now and again, I would check behind us and spot Kuyou trailing us from a distance.

Eventually, we stopped in front of some sort of food vendor. Haruhi wanted something, of course, but had to go and exchange our Canadian money for French money. I imagine we'll have to exchange back when we return to Canada or Japan or wherever this adventure ends. ...Moscow. It'll probably end in Moscow, and that's probably going to be my fault.

Anyway, we were lucky enough to find a food court place that had something we could all enjoy. Most of us got ice cream cones, with the exception of Yuki, who got a very large soda drink. By the time we were all seated, Haruhi had finished off her cone and was holding her head in pain. A moment later, Emiri joined her in cold sugary misery. I felt sorry for her, but she looked incredibly cute like that. I have a harder time feeling sorry for Haruhi.

Yuki got up and wandered off after finishing her drink, and Haruhi wobbled off to follow her. They'll stick together, I'm sure. I wasn't going to worry about those two. I was far more likely to worry about Emiri, who was also getting up. She looked like she had gotten over the brain freeze, but she also looked like she was planning to go off on her own.

She smiled. "You two stay here. I've got something I need to do."

Asakura started to object. "We should come with y-"

Emiri shoved Asakura's ice cream cone into the blunette's mouth, effectively silencing her. "You should stay here. I won't be too long." She winked at me, then turned and walked away with her red-tipped cane guiding her.

It occurred to me that she was probably going to meet up with Kuyou, so I let her go. Asakura was too busy dealing with the brain-freeze Emiri had forced on her to bother following her. So now it's just me and Asakura. I waited for her to finish her ice cream before trying to start a conversation. When she finally did away with the treat, we fell into a rather uncomfortable silence.

After a minute or two, she realized how awkward the situation was and tried to talk, but as luck would have it I did the same thing at the same time. Once we'd sorted out the false start, I let her go first.

She leaned back against her chair and crossed her arms casually. "You, uh... you seem to be getting along with Emiri pretty well."

On a hunch, I checked to make sure Emiri wasn't standing behind me. She wasn't, so I decided to answer, albeit somewhat vaguely. "That's one way of putting it."

She frowned. "Fine then... How about this? It's rude."

The subject just changed, I believe. Now I just have to figure out what she changed it to. "What's rude?"

She just huffed and turned away. "Calling me by my last name when I've asked you repeatedly to call me by my first name. It's getting to the point where it's actually quite insulting. I wish you would stop."

I don't see it, but okay. However, nothing comes without a price. You'll thank me later. "Alright, but under one condition." This caught her attention. "You have to tell me what's wrong with you. No lies and no sidestepping it. You've got to tell someone, and it might as well be me."

She let out a low growl, but gave in moments later. She slowly lowered her arms onto the table, resting her chin on them and sighing in defeat. "You can't tell Yuki or anyone else... but mostly Yuki." She stopped there, waiting for me to agree to her terms of non-disclosure.

"Okay, but why her in particular?"

"I'll explain. First things first, though. I, um... I told you before that I was... sick. I also said it wasn't contagious... that's... that's because I have cancer."

I'm sorry, what? "You... what? What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "Emiri and Yuki haven't noticed it, but the Data Integration Thought Entity did something to us before it left. It was a sort of countermeasure, in case Haruhi came looking for Yuki again. Fearing that Haruhi would still possess the ability to create a wave of data powerful enough to destroy it, the entity left a hidden program designed to ensure that Haruhi would always be able to find Yuki. This involved keeping Yuki in perfect health."

I held up my hand, asking her to pause. "That's definitely interesting, but I'm pretty sure you just said something about having cancer..."

She nodded. "And I'm getting to that. Yuki spends a lot of her time working with up close mechanics. Most of her free time, she's in her room watching TV or playing video games, and she's usually got headphones on whether she's working or not. It's gone on for years, and her eyes and ears haven't suffered at all."

I wish I could say I knew where this was going, but I'm almost completely in the dark. "I'm not sure what this has to do with... the pressing matter at hand."

She lowered her voice. "She doesn't realize it, and neither does Emiri, but the damage to Yuki's eyes was transferred directly to Emiri. I didn't know where the damage to her ears could have gone until I found out that our... other friend... was still alive. I'd be willing to bet she's near deaf."

Wait, let me get this straight. "You're telling me that the Data Integration Thought Entity is keeping Yuki in perfect health at the expense of everyone else?"

"Exactly." She snapped her fingers. "Don't even hint to Yuki that you know this, but I know she also smokes whenever she thinks I'm not looking. It hasn't ever effected her because it all goes straight to me." She rested her head back on top of her arms, her voice taking on a tone of genuine sadness. "She doesn't even realize that she's killing me... or rather, she already has."

This is a lot to take in, as you may have guessed. I... think I ran my fingers through my hair about then. I don't know, I was sort of preoccupied. I was trying to get over the fact that I was sitting across from a woman who had just revealed that she was actively dying. Something is just wrong about that situation.

I know I rubbed my eyes with my hands. "So... then why is it Yuki can't know?"

"If she finds out about the program causing this, she'll be able to delete it. If she deletes it, everything will go back to her. She will die."

"Right." Okay, that makes some sort of sense. I'm sure it does... somehow. "How... how long do you have, then?"

She shrugged. "My doctor told me last Spring that I had until around December. Every day after that is a... gift from God, I suppose."

I couldn't help but thinking that was a strange thing to say. "What kind of gift from God is that supposed to be? More time spent in pain, wondering when it's actually going to happen. That's not a gift. It's torture."

"No, that's not true." In the crowded terminal, I barely heard her. It was like this was the most sacred of secrets, and she was about to impart the last of her knowledge. "I lived long enough to see you and Haruhi. I got to know Yuki and Emiri would be taken care of. Not a day goes by that I regret taking this for Yuki. Even if it was my choice, I would gladly do this for her. I'd die a thousand slow painful deaths without a second thought if it would achieve what I have already done, because... the longer I last... the longer Emiri has."

My mind froze at the implications. "Wh... what are you saying?"

She gazed directly into my eyes and it felt like she was staring into my soul. "I'm saying that when I do die, this could transfer onto Emiri. She wouldn't be in immediate risk. I'll still be absorbing it right up until the end, and then it would take time to build up before it threatened her." She looked away. "Now, I don't know that this is what will happen. It might start effecting our other member, or it could just stop working and start killing Yuki. For all I know, it could all transfer to me even after I'm dead. The point is that I don't want to risk anyone."

It feels like she's about to give me some sort of mission. Let me guess. "You want me to stop her from keeping on smoking."

"Yes. When I die, then you need to explain everything to Yuki. It has to be you because the only other person who would understand it is Emiri, and she would rather pay the price for Yuki's mistakes then let Yuki pay for them. Emiri would risk her own life to keep Haruhi happy. You, on the other hand, wouldn't. The thing is that you can't tell Yuki before I die. If you do, she'll delete the program and take my place... and I will live... and she will die. I can't live with that."

Before I could offer any sort of advice or even consolation, Haruhi and Yuki rejoined us. Their appearance didn't bode well, as Haruhi was hiding something behind her back and Yuki was failing to hold back a grin. I can only imagine what horrible thing they had gotten.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. Haruhi's face cracked into a grin and she pulled out a small blue basket filled with streamers in one hand, and a pink one in the other hand. "We didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, so we just got both."

Sure enough, the pink basket said 'It's a Girl' on the side, and the blue one said 'It's a Boy'. Asak- ...Ryoko's face was the picture of pure horror. "What the- " No, I'm not repeating her words exactly. It's for your own benefit. " -is this?"

Haruhi never dropped the grin. "It's for your baby!" Yuki finally burst out laughing, forcing her to take a seat beside Ryoko.

Ryoko rolled her eyes. "Where did you even find those?"

Haruhi pointed off in some direction I don't plan on investigating. "There's a store over that way that just had everything."

Ryoko took the pink basket and inspected it. "You mean it has everything cheap and useless, right? This cost less than my ice cream."

Emiri appeared over my shoulder. "Are we going to leave the airport? We need to find a hotel or something. When Koizumi called, did he say he'd arrange for a place we could stay?"

I had to scrounge my mind to remember what Koizumi actually said. Not really, but almost. "No, I think he just said he'd contact us as soon as we arrived here."

Haruhi glanced around and shrugged. "Well, we're here. Now what?"

"Perhaps I could point you in the right direction, Miss Suzumiya."

We all looked to the newcomer. I didn't recognize him, and judging by their reactions, no one else did either. He looked like a middle-aged man wearing a formal suit and tie. His dark hair was cropped fairly short, but still managed to look shaggy. He smiled disarmingly at Haruhi and held his hand out to her.

"Keiichi Tamaru, Miss Suzumiya. Perhaps you remember me."

After a moment of contemplation, Haruhi smiled and shook the man's hand. "Oh, yes! I remember. You and your brother owned that island we stayed at."

He laughed. "That was years ago! I'm surprised you remember. I regret that we don't have any mystery set up this time..."

She shrugged. "That's okay. We're on a mission to reunite the SOS Brigade."

"So I've heard." He pointed toward a nearby exit sign. "Koizumi is waiting for us. Shall we go?"

Mr. Tamaru led the way, with Haruhi dragging Yuki right behind him. Standing up, I looped my arm around Emiri's and guided her along with the rest. Ryoko took up the rear, casually slipping the colorful baskets into a garbage bin as she walked. When I turned my focus back to where I was going, however, I couldn't help but notice a small packet of something hidden away in Yuki's coat pocket.


End file.
